Through The Ages
by darkphoneix
Summary: *unproofed* Ranma/WOT fusion crossover. A different take on Ranma's upbringing. This will eventually cross into the WOT universe/timeline.
1. Prologue

Ranma neared the gates of his new school. His forehead was creased in anger and he wanted nothing more than to lash out at his simpleton of a father for enrolling him without even consulting his son first. Not that he was very happy about being home again, either, but an overbearing mother who seemed obssessed with her son losing his virginity was better than school. Anything was better than school. The places were full of teachers who thought they had the right to order him around, students who thought they were better because they were a little older, and there was the work. Boring, pointless busy work that would never aide him in life and did nothing more than waste a significant portion of a student's early life, a time when he should be out doing stupid crap that he could look back on one day and be embarasseed about.  
  
Well, his mother had forced the issue, and Ranma meant to go through with this farce, though he intended to put not a single iota of effort into his education that he didn't absolutely have to to just barely pass. At least there would be girls here, unless Genma Saotome wanted to be skinned alive, there had better damned well be a lot of girls here, pretty ones. Not that he was a lecher, not really, but a young man his age 'was' at his sexual peak, and he did have all those nasty hormones racing through his blood. Heh, if only his mom knew the truth.  
  
Ranma glanced down at his watch and noticed that he would likely be late if he didn't hurry. That would be great, spending his first day in a new school standing in the hallway holding buckets. The gates were just ahead, so Ranma picked up his pace some. He heard the commotion before he saw it, but from the sound of things, a lot of people were getting the shit beat out of them.  
  
Rounding the corner and walking through the gates, Ranma was confronted with a semi-comical scene of boys being mown down like wheat before a scythe of a girl. She wielded her school bag with simple efficiency, braining anyone who came in range and using her free hand and feet every chance she got. Ranma felt sorry for the boys, he truly did, but they should know better than throwing themselves at someone who could so easily destroy them. With a sigh, Ranma siezed saidin and wove a dome of air and fire around the black-haired girl. Boys that came in contact with the invisible shield convulsed in agony before being thrown clear by a powerful discharge of electricity.  
  
Ranma winced, realizing that he had put too much effort into the deteren. Oh well, no pain, no gain. Someone definitely needed to gain some brains, so there would be pain aplenty to be meted out.  
  
After the first dozen or so boys went flying into the air, their forms wracked with tremors, the wild melee/slaughter came to a shaky haught. Boys still conscious eyed the girl with fear, something they should have felt earlier, and the girl herself didn't seem all that happy. She was staring at her fists as if they had grown into vipers, convinced that she had somehow been the cause of whatever had happened.  
  
Ranma shrugged. Better for everyone to think the girl responsible and leave himself obscured. Hoping to avoid the overall stupidity that permeated the courtyard, Ranma slipped out of the gates momentarily and wove a light bending shield of air around himself. A moment later he stepped back through the gates and quickly walked into the school building, catching the first part of someone's loud exclamation as the door shut behind him.  
  
The halls seemed strangely empty. Ranma contributed it to so many boys getting thrashed outside. He released saidin, sighing as he senses dulled and the sense of uncontainable life faded. A few seconds of digging through his school bag turned up the registration paper that had come in the mail the day before.   
  
****  
  
"Everyone, we have a new student joining the class today. Ranma has recently returned from China and I hope you all do your best to make him feel welcome." The teacher announced to her students. She stood by Ranma in front of the class, her eyes daring anyone to speak. "Won't you introduce yourself, Ranma?"  
  
"Hi," Ranma said simply. The teacher had already told them who he was, so there wasn't much point in elaborating. How she had known about the trip to China was a bit of a mystery. Of course one of his parents must have told, that was a given, but Ranma couldn't figure out why they had even mentioned the uneventful journey. Okay, not so uneventful, but it still shouldn't have been blabbed to his teachers.  
  
"Find a free seat for today and tomorrow I'll assign you a permanent place." The door swung open just as the teacher finished speaking and a somewhat dazed girl walked in. Ranma recognized the girl from the battle outside, and smirked to himself from his new seat as he saw the glazed appearance in her eyes."So good of you to join us Ms. Tendo. Buckets, hallway, now." The girl nodded woodenly and stepped back into the hallway.  
  
Some time later, an hour or so of utter boredom, Ranma managed to learn the girl's name from stray whispers he picked up from his new classmates. Akane. She was cute, kinda, but there were so many possibilities for entertainment that Ranma didn't even consider her as a possible exploit. Saidin raged within him, not even near his full potential, but enough to kick his senses into overdrive and make his nerves burn with the near ecstasy of power.   
  
Channelling was easy, an almost instinctive response to his desires, but no matter how good he was at it, no matter how much practice he had, channelling where one couldn't actually see the weaves of power was almost impossible. Still, Akane was close enough and Ranma's senses sharp enough that he was able to locate the twin concentrations of water she held in the buckets. Fire woven into one and air and water into the other. As he withdrew the weaves, Ranma waited for the inevitable outcry. It wouldn't take Akane long to realize that one bucket was full of boiling water and the other a solid block of ice.  
  
A yelp, not quite a screech, came from the hallway and Akane burst into the room, buckets held as far away as she could manage. In her haste, Akane's feet became tangled beneath her and she tripped, flinging a pail of bubbling water and a block of ice at the startled teacher. Ranma reacted in an instant, drawing the heat from the water and returning it to the ice. The teacher still got soaked to the bone, but she didn't get smashed or scalded.  
  
Akane tried to stammer out an explanation, but she repeatedly tripped over her own tongue as the dripping woman eyed her dangerously. The teacher's left eye was twitching noticeably and her fists were clenched at her sides."Th- I mean- Really-," Akane continued to babble.  
  
"Office. Now." And Akane fled from the room, looking almost ready to burst into tears, her cheeks flushed with either anger or mortified embarrassment. Ranma felt a little bad about getting her in so much trouble, he hadn't intended anything like that to happen. Akane really should learn to deal with suprises better than that, though.  
  
"I'll be back in a moment class. Don't so much as breathe loud while I'm gone."  
  
****  
  
Ranma ate his bento in peace, smiling back at the girl who sat next to him beneath the tree every so often to let her know he was still interested. She was attractive, with long dark hair, a pale, unblemished complexion, and a rather full bossom. The old Saotome charm was a mockery of charisma, so Ranma didn't even attempt to use it. A smile, a few kind words, and he had her eating out of the palm of his hand, literally.  
  
"What did you do in China?" Sara asked dreamily, her eyes full of little hearts that made Ranma wonder if he wouldn't be better off to just let the girl down gently and find someone less infatuated with him. Oh well, he'd take what he could get, for now.  
  
"Nothing much. Saw the sites, visited a few old temples. It was really just a long vacation, I don't even know why my parents told the school." Ranma was eager to move off the subject of China, so he asked,"Do you know why that Akane girl was beating up all the guys this morning?"  
  
Sara frowned at the mention of Akane, but she explained. By the time the girl finished, Ranma was shaking his head and trying not to laugh. This Kuno guy sounded like a true idiot, the kind that didn't know he was an idiot. "I don't know what they all see in her," he commented. "You're much prettier and seem a hell of a lot nicer."  
  
If anything, the girl's radiant smile increased in intensity. Damn, Ranma was doing it without even realizing it. Despite the complete lack of finesse or tact on his part, Sara seemed to be almost drooling over him.  
  
****  
  
"Spill the beans, sis," Nabiki said lazily as she did some simple yoga exercises on Akane's bedroom. She was clad in a skin tight, skin toned spandex body suit, indecent in Akane's opinion, but since there were no perverts in the house, she didn't really care.  
  
Akane knew what Nabiki was referring to, of course, but she didn't know how to explain it. Sure, she'd picked up her training a little lately, and even watched a few animes to see if they held any useful techniques. Could she have somehow performed a chi attack like her father had spoken of occassionally, or maybe it was magic? She glanced down at her hands worriedly before answering. "I don't know, Nabiki. The fight this morning, then there were the buckets in the hallway..." She flushed pink in rememberance of that debacle and the embarrassment it had caused her.  
  
"Do you think you could do it again?" From there the conversation degenerated into Nabiki trying to exploit her sister and her newfound powers.  
  
****  
  
Ranma's grandfather was a relatively young man of two hundred and seven years old. At least he would be considered young in his own time, so far into the future that the man couldn't even guess how many Ages into the past his desperate escape had taken him. A skilled scientist and maker, one of the few wielders of the One Power able to create ter'angreal, angreal, and sa'angreal, he hadn't been chosen as one of the strike group led by Lews Therin Telamon that undertook the perilous mission to seal the bore. The rarity of his Talent, only played a minor role in the decision, though. Moderately strong in the One Power, Aril just wasn't powerful enough to take along, something he was very very grateful for.  
  
When the bore was sealed, Arin along with his team of assistants had been monitoring the area around Shayol Gul, the once beautiful island where the Dark One made his home. The contamination of saidin was detected almost immediately, though it led to the overload of three rare and powerful ter'angreal. Arin had no idea what the contamination meant for users of saidin, and he didn't intend to find out. He bundled his wife and their young daughter up, grabbing only his most valuable creations, and escaped through the newest of the dimensional doorways. Unkeyed to any one plane of existance, he'd been able to bind it to one of the Portal Stones and use the combined power to break through the Wheel of Time itself, hurtling him and his small family through the Ages.  
  
They had found a world much like the one they had left. Primitive in some ways, startlingly advanced in others, Earth as it was called, proved easy to adapt to. Arin and Shora raised their daugher as a normal child of the twentieth century, unaware of her origins. Shora eventually died of old age, and Nokria joined her two decades later. Arin found himself with a granddaughter he didn't want to raise and a load of grief heavy enough to crush ten men. Nodoka, thankfully, showed no signs of being able to channel as she grew. If she had, Arin knew that his last living relative stood only a one in four chance of surviving without any female One Power users to instruct her.  
  
Then came Ranma, Nodoka's son. Arin had very nearly hunted down Genma when he learned that the man had his five year old great grandson in the wilderness training to fight. Fast talking from Nodoka, who herself knew nothing of the One Power, prevented her husband's early demise, though Arin had more than one reason to wish the man dead. When Ranma turned nine, he channeled for the first time. Years earlier than most boys, Ranma's young age nearly killed him, despite Arin's frantic tutoring. Even in his own time, such occurences were rare, and living through them rarer still.  
  
Of course Genma grumbled and made threats, but nearly having his hide peeled with invisible strands of Air quieted him quickly enough. Reading through his newest manga, Arin regretted letting the insufferable man talk him and Nodoka into allowing Ranma to go with him to China. Even after teaching Ranma how to Travel, Genma had still managed to get him into trouble. Well, the man's day was coming...  
  
****  
  
Author's Notes - Figured out how I can make a Ranma/WoT crossover without having Ranma be too powerful. Still gonna write WaW, but that one is gonna be completely different than this fic. 


	2. 1

Through The Ages - Chapter One  
  
"Did you have fun at school today, dear?" Nodoka asked her son pleasantly. She was sharpening her indestructible Power-wrought sword, nevermind that she didn't know how to use it or that it didn't actually need sharpening. Ranma couldn't figure out why his grandfather had given it to her.   
  
"Yeah, fun, lot's of fun. Here, read this," Ranma tossed a small booklet into his mother's lap. He'd bought it after school from a girl selling them at a booth. The book had a list of all the unusual and dangerous things that had happened at Furinkan, the injuries inflicted on its students over the past couple years, and a detailed account of each mental disorder that a suprising number of its students possessed.   
  
Nodoka sat her sword to the side and picked up the booklet. "What's this, son?"  
  
"It's from the school. You should probably read it. I'm gonna go visit gramps." Maybe he could get the man to teach him to weave balefire this time. Sure, it was dangerous, but he didn't actually plan on using the stuff unless there was an emergency. It was like an itch that he couldn't scratch, knowing that there was something he couldn't yet do with the One Power.  
  
"That's nice. Be back in time for supper. An old friend of your father's is coming by to visit and his daughters will be with him, so don't come back singed like last time," she finished firmly. The power her son and grandfather shared was more than unusual, but learning about it had explained a few unusual things that she'd always wondered about.  
  
Ranma grimaced at what he saw as another match making scheme in the works, but nodded slightly and left his mother to her reading. He stopped by his room and retrieved the ring that would allow him to pass through Arin's wards without getting him singed again. After slipping it on, Ranma channeled, taking hold of the Power and weaving a gateway into his grandfather's garage/laboratory.  
  
****  
  
Arin glanced up from his worktable as he felt the Power surge briefly, then a line of light formed in the air a few feet to his right, expanding into a doorway a moment later. After a couple close calls, he had designated a single spot to use for Traveling and marked it off with a bit of paint.  
  
Posters of semi-nude women and a model of the solar system could be seen through the gateway, as well as Ranma's grinning face. The boy stepped through and allowed the hole in the Pattern to close behind himself. Arin was proud of Ranma, more than just for his relation to him. At seventeen, Ranma was mature for his age, though his youth still showed through often. In terms of the power, he was as strong as any Arin had ever met, no mean feat when compared to men like Telamon.  
  
Ranma didn't have the required skill and Talent to create objects of power, the only real disappointment to Arin. His Talents went in other directions. Extremely strong in Earth and Fire, but only slightly less so in the others, Air, Water, and Spirit. Ranma had a knack for Healing, not the true gift, but better than Arin could manage. Earthfire, something close to what people in this Age called fusion, came easily to Ranma and Arin had spent weeks on that alone, schooling the boy in control of the powerful Talent. There were others, mostly minor. The ability to create large gateways, an affinity for detecting metals, and even a bit of Dreaming, not that Arin could instruct him on the last one. Arin suspected that Ranma had only survived the early awakening of his gift due to the fact that he could see and understand the weaves of the Power much better than average.   
  
"Working on anything interesting?" Ranma asked curiously. He pulled a bench up to the table and sat down, trying to figure out what the mass of wires on the table was.  
  
"Well, I don't know how interesting you would find it, but it helps pass the time," Arin answered. Without being prompted, he explained,"I'm trying to rig up a kind of battery. It's more complicated than that, but if I can make this work, I might be able to harness Fire directly to power anything that uses electricity." The Fire aspect of the One Power was really nothing more than basic energy, and channelers could change it into other forms of energy by weaving it along with other flows, but plain Fire could be converted to electrical energy easy enough. The hard part was getting the device to regulate the amount of Fire drawn in and the level of electricity generated.  
  
"I'll take your word for it. It'd be kinda nice to have a battery that never went dead. Any news on the doorway?"  
  
Arin still had the dimensional door, and he was in the process of priming it once again, but it took an enormous amount of the Power to get one stable enough to attempt using. Even with the use of a pair of powerful sa'angreal and Ranma's help, it was slow going. "I can't be certain that it's aligning as I wish it to, but the readings are dead on. You want to help me with it for a while?" Designed to shift the user into another plane of existance, the doorway existed in a dozen dimensions, turning space within itself in such a way that someone could travel to their destination and back again without expending so much as a trickle of Power. This doorway had become something more, though. Arin had used it to travel through time itself, sapping its energy and completely destroying a Portal Stone.  
  
"Sure. I won't be able to do too much. We're having some people over for dinner and mom'll raise hell if I come back dead on my feet." Ranma was eager to see the doorway restored, even more so than his grandfather. He liked his world, but here he was different, very different. A place where there were others able to channel would be refreshing.  
  
Arin regretted the need to decieve Ranma, but it was necessary. Time travel had been theorized in his era, but no one had ever been able to implement a working travel device. Now that he had, he intended go forard in time, but before Meirin unleashed the Dark One from his prison. It was an opportunity that he couldn't pass up, even if he risked destroying himself and his family through possible temporal paradoxes.  
  
****  
  
Ranma staggered through the barely adequate gateway and nearly collapsed on his bed. He hadn't meant to put so much effort into the doorway, but he'd mistaken how much of the work had been himself and how much the sa'angreal he wore on his right arm. He'd had to draw on the Power stored in the sa'angreal's well to even form the gateway. They had made significant progess, at least. Almost half of the stone doorway was red now instead of dull pink, a few more months and they would be finished.  
  
A quick look at his alarm clock told Ranma that there was still an hour until dinner. He sighed gratefully and allowed himself to fall into a light sleep. Someone pounding on his door snapped Ranma out of the beginnings of a very pleasant dream.  
  
"All right already, I'm awake, stop that," Ranma shouted half-heartedly, still feeling only a little better than dead. He called on the Oneness to separate himself from his exhaustion and climbed out of bed. With his emotions buried along with his body's weakness, Ranma could sense saidin, like a bright light just outside his range of vision. The thought of grasping the source in his current state caused a shudder to ripple across the void of the Oneness. The battle sa'angreal came loose easily and he stowed it under the matress of his bed.  
  
He jerked the door open, already berating his father for being scum,"Pop-," and the words died in his mouth. What in hell was the girl doing here? Akane Tendo, the brunt of more than one practical joke on his part. Ah, his father's friend, this must be one of his daughers. Well, his mom could forget ever getting him to go out with any of the other daughters if they were like this one.  
  
"Mrs. Saotome called you but you didn't answer. Dinner is ready," Akane said, frowning at him for some reason. She didn't wait for a response, turning on her heel and stomping down the stares. A real gentle soul, that one. Ranma would have made a smart comment, something designed to make the girl angry, but he didn't really care how she acted in his present state. Food would help him recover his strength a bit faster.  
  
****  
  
"-and this is Akane, she's 17 years old. Pick one and she'll be your fiance," Mr. Tendo finished proudly.  
  
"The honor of our two schools rest on your shoulders, Ranma," Genma said proudly. "Choose wisely."  
  
Ranma opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. He glanced at his beaming father and smiling mother. A twitch developed in his right eye. Ranma threw himself into the Oneness before he could murder anyone. Rage slashed across the void, almost bringing Ranma out of the Oneness. He fought it, focussed the will he'd developed in fighting saidin until the anger was safely locked outside the void. Forcing himself to unclench his hands from the edge of the table, Ranma debated what to do. Compulsion would have worked, if he knew it well enough, but he didn't, so there wasn't any point in wasting time thinking about it. He couldn't very well kill anyone, though the thought was oddly conforting, even within the calm, emotionally dead void.  
  
He was calm, calm like the eye of a hurricane. The room held an expectant silence, broken only by the low growls escaping from Akane's throat. Nabiki was attractive, in a cute, cold manner, but not really his type, and Kasumi was out of the question. She was so nice, he couldn't take advantage of her. Oh well, best to distract everyone and try to figure out what to do later. Saidin came easily, magnifying all of his senses and bringing pleasure not quite to the point of ecstasy. He couldn't draw much, even after a full meal and the short nap, but Illusion was simple to weave and Fire never exacted much from him.  
  
Glaring grimly at his father, but keeping his eye on Akane well enough to wreath her in saidin, Ranma channeled. To everyone unable to see the flows, it appeared that Akane began to grow, slowly, but with perceptible speed. Then a halo of fire surrounded her head, throwing guttering sparks into the air. Finally, when everyone in the room was gaping, she launched herself at her father. Ranma had had nothing to do with the attack, but he was satisfied that he had helped put the fear of Akane in everyone.  
  
Soun screamed like a girl, trying to ward off the full fisted blows that Akane rained down on him. "Engage me to a boy without asking... pass us around like a piece of meat..." the screaming became muffled as Akane smashed her father through a wall and into the back yard.  
  
"Oh my," Kasumi muttered, she must have stopped taking her medication again. "I've seen her glow a few times, but never grow. Hmmm. unusual side effects for lithium." She continued to smile, despite the pained moans coming from the backyard.  
  
"Well, that settles that. Not that I would do it anyway, but I'm not marrying into a family with a psycho monster," Ranma said. The girl really was psycho. "I'll be at gramp's place if you need me," he snapped at his mother. He could expect something like this out of Genma Saotome, but he had thought better of his mother. Genma, of course, blanched at the mention of Arin. Ranma was glad that he no longer held saidin or the Oneness, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to enjoy his father's trembling, suddenly sweat streaked gray face.  
  
"I- I'll go save Soun now," the elder Saotome said. Ranma didn't know what his grandfather had said or done to the man, but it was effective.  
  
****  
  
The next day, Ranma didn't bother going home to pick up a school uniform. He didn't want to see his parents and the things were uncomfortable enough that he didn't mind getting in a bit of trouble if it allowed him to wear his plain black pants, button up gray shirt, and nearly knee length coat. He could have ignored the chill of the morning, but there wasn't any sense in taking a chance at getting sick.  
  
His grandfather had been sympathetic to his complaints the night before, and he didn't mind having his grandson over for a few days. Ranma intended it to be more than a few days. However long it took his parents to apologize for trying to engage him to someone without his consent. It was kind of sad that his father had attempted to use honor to trap him in the marriage. Not to say that he was dishonorable, Ranma just couldn't see someone viewing honor in such a way that it let others manipulate or bully them into actions they didn't wish to take. Once again, Ranma silently thanked his grandfather for passing on his ability to channel to him. He didn't want to imagine what he would have turned out like if Genma had been his sole role model growing up. The thought brought a shudder.  
  
Before the school gates were even in site, Ranma could hear the massacre of Furinkan's male student body taking place. It seemed even louder than the day before, with quite a few more screams mixed in with the crunching and smashing. Akane was glowing, not with saidin or even saidar, but with chi. Ranma had seen his father manifest what he called a battle aura on more than one occassion, and he had learned to recognize the feel of it. Ranma himself couldn't have made one to save his life, not with chi anyway. He hadn't devoted enough time to martial arts and he didn't have any single predominate emotion he could use to fuel the chi. Not that he was complaining. Saidin was more than enough for him.  
  
Ranma was forced to hop to the side as one unfortunate student was knocked airborne, flying across the street and impacting with the brick exterior of a closed store. He wove the mirrors of mist, much like last night, yet this time there was no slow size increase. One moment Akane was a normal sized human being, glowing but normal sized, then the next she towered above the crowd by a good fifty feet or more. Akane couldn't see herself, and wasn't really any larger than normal, but her image seemed to fight invisible foes, as her real self finished decimating the boys who were too stunned by Akane's monstrous appearance to even try to fight back.  
  
With his senses heightened, Ranma was able to see Nabiki standing in the third floor window, a camera in hand. Heh, there would be evidence for Akane to see. Releasing saidin caused the Illusion to disperse and dulled the world to a mere hint of its saidin enhanced glory. Ranma carefully stepped across the courtyard, avoiding unconscious and injured boys and more than one puddle of blood or some other bodily fluid best left unmentioned.  
  
Akane heard someone approaching from behind and rounded on Ranma, her fists raised to 'defend' herself. "You!!!" she shouted, not quite going red with fury. The aura that had begun to fade away suddenly came back with a vengeance, so powerful that Ranma could feel it pushing against him lightly.  
  
Ranma was about to say something cruel when another voice broke in. "Doth mine eyes decieve me, or has the fierce maiden at last revealed her true nature as a goddess in the flesh?" Enter Kuno. Ranma knew him instantly, from descriptions of his idiocy and his mode of speech. What almost set Ranma's mouth to gaping was that the older boy held saidin, though not very much and his grip was tentative at best. He had never encountered another channeler besides his grandfather, and as far as his grandfather knew, they were the only two on the planet. Untrained, most likely. Ranma groaned to himself about what this could mean. If his grandfather didn't take up Kuno's instruction, he would task Ranma with it.  
  
Akane's attention refocussed on the bokken wielding fool and Ranma took the time to study Kuno more closely. The idea that Kuno understood and used the Oneness was highly unlikely. Using saidin in when not immersed in the void was dangerous, very dangerous. It could surge, burning the channeler out or kill him out right, not to mention causing damage to the surrounding area. Kuno wasn't only a danger to hmself, but to those around him also.  
  
"What do you want, Kuno?" Akane snapped. She didn't know that only a minute earlier she had appeared taller than the school building, something that obviously impressed Kuno to no end.  
  
Saidin surged within the older boy, not in an attempted weaving or in a call for more Power, but in something resembling a wave breaking too close to shore. Kuno's eyes glazed momentarily and he stiffened, but the saidin receded and his stance became normal. Did the boy even know that he held saidin, or was he that ignorant? Ranma wasn't going to take any chances, not when he could get caught in the backlash of any more of those surges. He wove a shield of Spirit, slamming it between Kuno and the Source without mercy. The flows were so knotted by the time Ranma finished tying the shield off, that it would be easier to remove the shield by cutting it away than releasing it.  
  
As the shield blocked the Source, Kuno's eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he passed out without so much as a squeak. Ranma almost chuckled when Akane jumped, startled. She must have thought she did that somehow. Only a few seconds had elapsed since Kuno's arrival and Ranma didn't want to stand around the courtyard until he was late, so he left the boy in Akane's hands and continued on to class.  
  
****  
  
"It's hard to say for sure. Everyone was tested for the inborn talent or the ability to learn in my time. If you could learn or had the spark, you had to be trained to use the One Power, it was a law. There were stories, though, more like legends really, that during other Ages past not everyone was found. We didn't always find everyone early enough, ourselves, and those people only stood a one in four chance of surviving their first few uses or the Power. The One Power isn't even known in this Age. I still can't imagine how far back I must have came for such to be possible. This Kuno is a very lucky individual, if he has survived his first use of saidin and is even able to hold onto it. Of course we will have to teach him properly," Arin finished, his last words confirming Ranma's fears.  
  
"Kuno is the type of person who would misuse the Power, grandfather," Ranma tried to explain. He took a minute to tell the man about the morning fights at his new school and Kuno's proclamation.  
  
"Even more of a reason to properly instruct the young man, Ranma. He could be unconsciously holding the Source, completely unaware that he's doing it, and all the while that Power may be damaging his brain. For all we know, he could be acting like such an imbecile because of his mishandling of saidin." Arin crossed his arms and stared down at Ranma, even though Ranma himself was an inch taller.   
  
Ranma's shoulders slumped and he gave a great sigh. "I'll try, but the first time he tries to hit me with that ridiculous wooden sword of his, I'm gonna begin using him to practice Compulsion on. Oh yeah, I stopped by the house and picked this up." Ranma pulled the sa'angreal he had worn the night before from one of the deep side pockets in his coat. It looked like nothing more than a fingerless black glove fitted with numerous steel rings that held it on the users arm despite its lack of a bottom. Ranma didn't understand the making of them, but he knew that the object was more valuable than he could concieve. Not only did it allow its user to draw more heavily from the Source, over twelve fold more Power, it also had a deep well, a kind of battery that could hold as much saidin as Ranma could channel in a minute. The well wasn't really good for much, now, aside from helping Ranma when he had exhausted himself, but during the War of Power, such a well would allow a channeler who had been shielded to break the shield or escape entirely.   
  
Arin kept a trio of attachments meant to bind to the sa'angreal in a small safe in his laboratory, and he'd let Ranma play with them some, but they were defensive in nature, made to help the wielder stay alive in a pitched battle where the One Power was a weapon of the enemy. "Keep it," Arin said lightly. "I have one of my own. the combination to the safe I'll get the rest of it out for you later."  
  
Ranma sat back on his stool, stunned. The sa'angreal held limply in his hand had been worn on more than one occassion by Lews Therin Telamon, the Dragon, the hero of the War of Power.  
  
****  
  
Author's Notes - I'm gonna make this a few more chapters in Ranma's time, then it's off to the future, as you may have guessed. I still haven't decided if Kuno will go or anyone else, though. 


	3. 2

Through The Ages - Chapter Two  
  
It was the talk of the school. Akane had put Kuno into a coma just by looking at him. Ranma was pleased that he'd gotten the girl more than a bit of infamy, but he was a touch concerned about Kuno. Neither he nor his grandfather knew why Kuno had fallen into a coma as he had, but Arin believed it just an unusual and harmless side effect. It would have been much better for him, though, if the girl really had done what the rumors claimed. As things stood now, Ranma would be making a visit to Nerima General to remove the boy's shield and hopefully see about beginning his instruction in the One Power. He still wanted to refuse the duty, but his grandfather had given him the sa'angreal, and wether the man intended it or not, Ranma felt that he owed Arin a great deal.   
  
Ranma didn't even get a chance to interfere with Akane's morning brawl. The boys were so scared of her that none of them would even meet her eyes. He spent most of the day ignoring teachers, concentrating instead on weaving minute flows of Air and Fire that danced as colored lights before Akane's, and only Akane's, eyes. She had tried to ignore them at first, but no matter how studied her disinterest seemed to be, Ranma glimpsed her attempting to swat the filaments of light away, unsuccessfully. By the time lunch arrived, Akane was scowling at the empty space and had snapped a piece of her desk off, unconsciously crushing it to splinters in her hand.  
  
Releasing the weave, Ranma grabbed his bento and headed out of the room. He was going to meet Sara again, under a large shade tree near the back of the school grounds. The area wasn't really secluded, but he could hide them well enough that a little naughtiness could take place without raising any eyebrows.  
  
****  
  
Ranma whistled tunelessly as he left the school grounds, turning toward the hospital. The walk wasn't terribly far, and he wasn't so lazy that he would use the Power for everything. Ranma donned the sa'angreal, examining it more closely than he ever had before. The dull black leather-like material showed no signs of wear and the numerous rings shown mirror smooth. Where before there had been an oddly shaped indentation in three of the rings, now rested a trio of golden studs. Each was a ter'angreal, able to be used separately from the sa'angreal, but designed to work best with the device. One greatly masked the saidin he could hold, possibily fooling an enemy, though he had never encountered such an enemy and doubted he ever would. Another allowed Ranma to detect saidin at much greater distances than normal, as well as detect saidar in use. The last stud acted as a kind of well, though its power couldn't be called on by its user. Once charged, it would deflect most projectile attacks when activated, and could turn aside a small number of attacks using the Power.  
  
Fire and Air meshed together cloaked the weapon from view. Ranma held his hand up and flexed his fingers, trying to find any sign that his weaving was inadequate. If he moved them especially fast, a gray blur would envelope his arm halfway to the elbow, but that was all right, he wasn't planning on breaking into a run any time soon. Less than a block from the school, the small cell phone in Ranma's coat pocket began to vibrate. Only his parents and grandfather knew that number... and a dozen or so girls, but the call could still be important. The phone was half the size of Ranma's palm and he had worried more than once about accidentally crushing it.  
  
"Huh?" he asked after accepting the call.   
  
-Hey, Ranma, this is your grandfather. I just got some disturbing news from your mother. Oh yeah, she's starting to get upset about you dodging your duty and dishonoring your family. Anyway, she mentioned some strange occurences around one of those girls your supposed to be engaged to. She seems to believe that saidar may be involved. Not that I know what to do if she's correct, but we should probably know. One of your new toys should work well for the job.- Ranma could hear something rattling in the background, and every so often a rumbling crash.  
  
Ranma found himself chuckling into the reciever. "Heh, nothing to worry about. That's all been me, just playing a joke. I'm trying to make her think she has special powers." Ranma didn't quite sound malicious, but he came close.  
  
There were a few moments of silence, then Arin finally spoke, -That's cruel, Ranma, I'd thought your mother would have raised you better than that.- Arin didn't sound disaproving at all, though.  
  
"Yeah, great, eh?" Ranma asked, fighting down the urge to giggle. Men don't giggle, even men confortable with their masculinity don't giggle.  
  
-Give her one for me when you get a chance. Well, I won't keep you any longer. I know you're eager to begin with Kuno.-  
  
"Yeah, later."  
  
****  
  
Arin surveyed the excavation site from atop a hill of rubble. He'd actually found an intact Portal Stone. It didn't look anything like those from his era, and was about twice as large, but the energy readings were an exact match. Finally, proof that someone had had access to the Power before his arrival from the future. Portal Stones were nigh impossible to relocate. He'd have to move his lab and the doorway to the Portal Stone. No big deal really, just another minor detail.  
  
He couldn't help but grin, remembering his short conversation with the boy. Ranma shouldn't channel in public, certainly, but he didn't doubt that the boy's little joke was amusing.  
  
****  
  
Disguised as an elderly, female nurse, Ranma slipped into Kuno's hospital room. The receptionist had been adamant about him not seeing his soon to be student unless he was family, even going so far as to threaten to call security. Ranma didn't release his grip on saidin, but he did allow the flase image of himself to fade away.  
  
Even in his sleep, Kuno's features appeared as a combination of stupidity and arrogance. Ranma sighed for about the thousandth time, trying to figure out how he was going to go about educating the imbecile. First of all, he supposed, he needed to remove or at least lessen the shield blocking Kuno from the Source. Ranma was impressed with just how well he had knotted the flows of Spirit as he painstakingly untied each flow, one by one. The task took ten times longer than it'd taken to create the shield, and twice as much effort. Ranma would have cut through it entirely, but that could cause all sorts of complications if Kuno somehow took hold of saidin subconsiously once again.  
  
When he was finished, Ranma checked his work, and was pleased to see that Kuno was no longer blocked from the Source. Unblocked didn't mean uninhidered. Only a small trickle of Kuno's relatively low Power limit could flow into the boy, but it should be enough. Kuno's eyes fluttered several times before Ranma finally lost patience and thumped the older boy's forehead with a minute flow of Air.  
  
Kuno's eyes snapped open and he looked around the room dazedly. While he adjusted to consciousness, Ranma tried to make sense of the medical chart at the foot of the bed. Something about unexplained brain inactivity or something. Ranma shrugged and dropped the folding clip borad back into its receptacle. The sound drew Kuno's attention and he tried to focus on Ranma.  
  
"Why - Why do I awake to find a lowborn knave at my bedside instead of my wondrous goddess?" Kuno rasped, his voice sounding like sandpaper. He scratched weakly at the IV needle taped to his arm, making no move to remove it.  
  
"If you want to be insulting, you'd be better off using words that people can understand." Ranma hadn't planned past this point. He had no idea how he was supposed to get Kuno out of the hospital or even go about explaining to him the One Power. The 'wondrous goddess' comment set something in motion, however. Akane...wondrous goddess...The thought was laughable. Well, it could work.   
  
"Akane Tendo sent me to guide you to her. She wishes to meet you in secret and share her true feelings with you." Ranma almost gagged over the words, and the effort to not laugh hysterically was immense.  
  
Kuno's already slightly glazed eyes went almost opaque. "True feelings ...at last, the day I've waited for has arrived," he whispered. Much slower than Ranma expected, Kuno began detaching himself from various medical equipment. Ranma turned his back to give the boy some privacy.  
  
Back still turned, Ranma asked,"How do you plan to leave the hospital? I expect the doctors are gonna want to run all kinds of tests on you and stuff."  
  
Busying himself with removing his catheder, Kuno waved the problem aside. "Silence, fool. I own this medical establishment. If I wish to leave, I shall leave."  
  
"If you say so," Ranma shrugged. Just encase, he prepared a couple webs of Spirit to knockout anyone who decided to make trouble.  
  
****  
  
Kuno strode along side Ranma, dressed in his kendo garb. Those had been the only clothes in his room and the boy didn't seem to mind wearing the ridiculous outfit, despite the stares and finger pointing it got him. Ranma had ignored most of Kuno's comments and quotes, but he was rapidly losing patience. Time to get down to business.  
  
Air encircled Kuno's limbs, binding him as thoroughly as any iron could, and formed a gag that forced his jaw open to the point where only slightly more pressure would dislocate it. Ranma quickly guided his captive student into a small side alley between an antique shop and a furniture store. Kuno's eyes danced wildly within his skull and his muscles bulged as he strained to escape his bonds.  
  
"Now listen to me, you stuck up fool," Ranma commanded. "If I'm gonna have to put up with you every day for who knows how long, you're have to start talking like a normal person and treating me as an equal. If not, you're going to die, most likely. You don't want that, do you?" After a moment, Kuno shook his head slowly. "If I let you talk, are you going to scream or try to call for help or anything like that?" Kuno once again shook his head negative and Ranma released the flows of Air gagging him.  
  
"Unhand me, foul sorceror! How dare you use your foul magicks to detain a personage such as mine!?" The gag returned before he could take another breath and begin ranting again.  
"This isn't working. Nevermind this crap, I'll just take you somewhere where no one will be able to hear you scream." Fire and Spirit came together and a vertical slash of light appeared in the air against one of the alley's grimey walls. It gradually expanded into a door sized portal through which a small cluster of trees and a rusted scrap car could be seem. Ranma stepped through the gateway, followed closely by a floating Kuno.   
Ranma had always preferred his grandfather's home over the crowded city of Tokyo. Located in the middle of nowhere in Montana, one of the US states, the air was clean and no one was around to hear explosions and the like a good teaching session could produce. Arin's house sat on the leeward side of a small hill, and appeared to be a large log cabin, but it was really just a normal house made to look rustic. The rusted hulk to his left had been there for as long as he could remember, even though it could have been easily moved using the Power. It added atmosphere, his grandfather said.   
  
Kuno's face had gone pasty white and he was sweating profusely. Ranma couldn't say for sure, but the boy may have been trembling, too. The gag dissolved again, but this time Kuno made no move to speak. He just hung a foot above the ground, trying to glare menacingly at Ranma and not succeeding all that well.  
  
"I'm not a foul sorceror, a demon, or an alien, just in case you are wondering. I do not want your soul, blood, or brain. I have no intentions of probing you, sexually molesting you, or making anything that could be somehow viewed as a sexual advance towards you. If you don't try to run away or hurt me, I won't hurt you." Ranma said it flatly, proud of himself for how cold his voice sounded. The Oneness added its own emotionless quality to his speech, almost making Ranma sound dead.   
  
"What do you intend to do with me?" Kuno snapped through gritted teeth. "If you've harmed my goddess, the wrath of heaven shall-"  
  
"No threats, either, stick boy. Now, since you asked nicely, I'm gonna teach you how to do what I do, how to take hold of the masculine portion of the energy which powers the universe, the yang of existance you could say. Call it magic if you wish, it's really called saidin, and people like you and me are called channelers, because we channel that energy. I don't want to teach you, but my grandfather was pretty firm about it, and since you could end up dying or killing other people in your ignorance, I'm stuck with you." Ranma stopped, waiting for the inevitable questions.  
  
For a minute or two, Kuno's jaw remain tightly clenched. Finally, as the silence was beginning to grow even more awkward, he asked,"Why me" It was a very quiet and subdued enquiry, much different than the boy's usual proclamations and arrogant statements. Ranma didn't even hope that he'd done anything beyond scare the stupid out of his student for the time being.  
  
Ranma shrugged. "There's not really much choice and I didn't just pick you out of a crowd. You have the spark and have already begun to channel. In fact, you're holding the Source at this very moment, and the way you are doing it could very well fry your brain if you sneezed to hard." Ranma paused, continuing when he believed he had an adequate explanation ready. "Holding saidin is like fighting living fire that makes your blood burn. It doesn't hurt, really, it's just a struggle until you become experienced enough to master it completely, then you can appreciate the near ecstasy that it brings. Your senses arei in every way sharper. I'm holding saidin right now and I can count the every needle of every tree individually that you could point out to me from where you're standing."  
  
Something like comprehension dawned in Kuno's eyes. "That is...saidin? Surely you are mistaken. I achieved martial perfection and the gift of heightened senses were bestowed upon me by the accomplishment. The fire and pleasure are simply side effects of my twisted sister's botanic experimentations."  
  
Ranma sighed, not comprehension then, denial. He lifted Kuno another foot into the air and asked,"Does that look seem like anything related to martial perfection to you? No, I didn't think so. You just got lucky that your martial arts training somehow provided you with enough discipline to keep you from burning yourself to a cinder with the Power." Martial arts training, that was a joke. Sure, Kuno could very well be an invincible swordsman for all Ranma knew, but he was inclined to believe that it was seld delusion that had really saved Kuno.  
  
Kuno appeared to consider Ranma's words, though he perspired even more, if that was possible. "Your words ring true. Perhaps I could learn this channeling you speak of." Leave it to Kuno to make instructing him sound like a privelage.  
  
Ranma sighed. It was a start, at least, and it had only taken most of the afternoon. Still not trusting Kuno enough to free him, Ranma guided his floaing form through the loosely growing fir trees and after a few minutes of hiking, into a deep rock pit. The walls of the pit were scorched in numerous places, melted in others, and smashed to powder in others. Ranma looked at the site much as another person would at their first bicycle. More demonstrations were in order, just to hammer the point through Kuno's thick skull.  
  
****  
  
Author's Notes - Yes, I'm going to make Kuno more than a disposable character/Ranma ass kick fodder in this fic. He won't be very important, and even now his presence is only part of the chain of events that are going to throw Ranma into the WoT timeline. In case you haven't guessed, Ranma isn't a god of martial arts in this fic. I may have Kuno try to show his gratitude towards Ranma by teaching him to use a sword, but I may not. 


	4. 3

Kuno was much easier to get along with once he immersed himself in the Onenees, Ranma decided. It masked overweening pride, as well as arrogance and all the other annoying emotions his student seemed to possess in spades. Ranma had been suprised that Kuno was able to learn the mental exercise in a week, or at least the lesser Void form which required the visualization of a flame that consumed emotions. Unfortunately, most of the good things dried up.  
  
He insisted on teaching Ranma how to fight with a sword, even though Ranma didn't particularly care for one on one combat. Even with his lack of interest, Ranma was able to hold his own against Kuno for a few minutes at a time, the vestigial skills imparted by his father making themselves useful for more than increased stamina. An hour ot two a day of hitting one another with sticks wasn't too much trouble, and if it helped Ranma get rid of Kuno quicker, he could handle it. Unfortunately, Ranma saw no end in sight for his instruction of Kuno.  
  
The boy had what his grandfather called an aversionary blockage. That was a fancy way of saying that he couldn't willingly channel without certain conditions being met. Minor forms of the blockage could be simple hand gestures added in the shaping of a weave, an inability to see a particular flow of Power, or something as simple as not being able to channel around the opposite sex or a particular color. There were others his grandfather had heard of, but those were the most widespread. Major blockages were less common, and were mostly found in people who had been at least partially self taught. Having one's weaves disappear when they passed farther than twenty feet away was a major blockage associated with a subconscious belief that the channeler couldn't affect anything farther away. Some blockages were documented, but no way to explain them were found, such as the inability to channel within several miles of any ter'angreal. His grandfather said that was a bad one. There had been very few places in his time that didn't have ter'angreal in one form or another.  
  
Kuno's blockage was hard to define as major or minor. He had no unusual limitations as far as his channeling was concerned, and he showed all signs of learning to manipulate the Power as a channeler should, but he couldn't do anything without his bokken. The simple wooden stick served not only to shape the flows, but it channeled them also. Ranma had taken it to his grandfather, who was busy at an archeological dig somewhere in South America. As far as Arin could determine, the bokken was a primitive ter'angreal, created unknowingly by Kuno's subconscious mind and his latent spark.  
  
The wood had crystalized, taking on a shiny appearance and gleaming if held to light at a certain angle. Arin hadn't seen anything like it before, and couldn't see any benefit to using it over traditional methods of channeling, though he guessed that it could help keep Kuno from drawing too much power too early for him to control it. Neither Ranma nor Arin had any idea how to break the blockage, so Ranma continued his lessons with Kuno, spending nearly every available hour after school at Arin's country home.  
  
Nevermind that he would be helpless without his bokken, Kuno wasn't a bad student. He learned weaves quickly and efficiently, only needing to see the easier ones demonstrated a few times to pick them up. Ranma would have been happy, if he knew there wasn't so much more to teach the boy.  
  
****  
  
School wasn't going badly at all. Ranma was failing his classes and he didn't care, especially since he hadn't seen his parents since they had announced the engagement, so they couldn't bitch at him about his grades. Akane now fancied herself as some kind of witch in training, taking time out of class to read occult books and stare into large crystals.   
  
With Kuno keeping himself in the Oneness almost constantly, he no longer cared one way or another about Akane or the morning fight. The other male students were a different matter, ignoring Kuno's disinterest, getting themselves pounded or balsted into submission day after day. That was Ranma's newest prank, making it appear as if Akane was shooting small bolts of lightning from her finger tips. Kuno even helped occassionally, if somewhat reluctantly at first.  
  
Sara hadn't worked out as well as Ranma had hoped, though. She had seemed so sweet and innocent. Who could have known that she was a part time dominatrix? Well, there were plenty of fish in the sea, and Ranma prided himself on his fishing skills. He was currently attempting a rather difficult catch. Nabiki was higher on the food chain than most fish, a shark really, but that just meant that you needed better bait and a strong pole.  
  
Nabiki's eyes narrowed and she didn't quite glare at Ranma. "So you're finally going to try to go through with the engagement?" she asked coldly. There wasn't much chance that their conversation could be overheard, but Ranma still wove a ward against eavesdropping around them.  
  
Ranma couldn't help but chuckle. "Hardly. I haven't even gone home since my parents pulled that stunt."  
  
Nabiki didn't even blink. "And your point is? That doesn't mean you don't want to try to force one of my sisters or myself to marry you. Of course this could all be some sort of plot to get Kuno with my sister. You two have been buddy buddy lately, but I don't believe for an instant that he's given up on her. You going to try for a double date?" Nabiki decided that she sounded more than a little paranoid, not unlike her younger sister. With a mental sigh, she steeled herself to at least listen to Ranma without snapping his head off.  
  
Ranma looked at Nabiki strangely. How had she gotten something so convoluted and invloved out of a simple enquiry about wether or not she wanted to go out saturday night. "Not really. I'm teaching Kuno some stuff, that's all there is to him. The reason I asked you out is because I thought we might get along well together. Your attractive, I'm attractive. Aren't the beautiful people supposed to hang out together?" Blunt didn't even begin to describe this. Ranma just couldn't get the image of Sara out of his mind. The leather bikini and corset really had looked hot on her, but once she started cracking the bullwhip, Ranma had ran for his life.  
  
Nabiki's face was still a mask of suspicion, but she asked,"Just a date?" Ranma nodded. "You're paying?" Ranma nodded again. "No sex?" Ranma nodded again, if somewhat reluctantly. Nabiki shrugged to herself and said,"Okay, pick me up at seven sharp." She snapped her fingers and a business card appeared in her hand. Nabiki tucked the card into Ranma's pocket and left to join her friends.  
  
****  
  
Nabiki spent much of the day trying to figure out Ranma's motives. She didn't believe for an instant that Ranma just wanted to get to know her. Her reputation wasn't the best, afterall. Not that she was easy or anything, she was just high maintenance. Boys tended to shy away from a girl who wanted the best of everything and expected the boys to get it for them. Oh well, maybe she could use the opportunity to learn more about Ranma. He hadn't appeared exceptional in any way except for maybe being cute, and he had showed no signs of wanting to follow through on their parents' ridiculous engagement plans, so Nabiki hadn't gone to any trouble to learn anything about him. At the very least she could get a free meal out of him.  
  
****  
  
Nothing could tip over a dimensional doorway and Arin was more than a little thankful for that. If it were possible, and it moved out of alignment with any of its focus planes, all kinds of things, ranging from black holes to dimensional rifts could form. They didn't react well to Travelling either. Being outside of the Pattern for even the barest instant that occured when passing through a gateway caused the devices to explode. Violently. The first successful doorway was destroyed in the attempt, due to ignorance of the scientists who had created it. Several miles of surrounding countryside how also been destroyed, reduced to atoms really. If the monitoring ter'angreal hadn't been properly shielded against interference, no one would have even known what caused the explosion.  
  
Just because it couldn't be transported by gateway didn't mean the doorway wouldn't be at the site when Arin needed it. Chartering transport planes and helicopters wasn't cheap, but he had a few patents in his name and plenty of money to burn. The partially standing temple was Mayan, Arin believed, but all he really cared about at the site was the Portal Stone it housed. The coordinate markings were in a completely different language than those Arin had worked with, so that meant laboriously mapping out every destination the stone held within its memory.   
  
****  
  
Ranma stepped through the gateway into his room and let the portal close behind himself. Two weeks and he hadn't seen his parents once, only stopping by the house when he was sure they were away, or sneaking in when he had to retrieve something or other. Nodoka had been talking regularly with his grandfather and she was still adamant that Ranma go through with the prearranged marriage. Thankfully, the woman hadn't decided to show up during school or wait for him after the session was over for the day.  
  
Arin didn't even have a television, and Ranma was getting tired of plundering around the man's lab. Reception wouldn't be all that great out in the wilderness of Montana, but Ranma could make do with his dvd collection.   
  
*Cough*Cough* Ranma turned around and frowned when he saw his mother sitting at his desk. She wore her bath robe and had her hair down, letting it fall nearly to her waist. There was a half eaten salid and an empty bottle of water sitting on the desktop. Great, how long had she been waiting?  
  
"Hello, dear." It sounded more like a pronouncement of judgement than the greeting it was. "I trust you've been well. Of course a mother doesn't have a right to know these things, does she? No, for all I knew, you could have run off and got yourself killed."  
  
Ranma sat on his unmade bed and waited for the lecture to run its course. This one was a real doozy, and almost an hour went by before the woman ran out of things to complain about. Once she got to that level, Nodoka finally brought up the engagement and his honor and all that crap.  
  
"You're being stubborn, Ranma. All of those girls are very attractive, not to mention perfectly built for having babies. Your behavior has shamed your father and I, and sullied your honor as well as ours. I hate to bring this up, but you and yur father signed an agreement when he first took you on your training voyage that you would be a man amongst men. You are hardly acting manly, my son." Nodoka drew a rolled up scroll from her pocket and handed it over to Ranma.  
  
Ranma untied the ribbon holding it closed and scanned through the document. Blah blah blah...bunch of stupid shit...blah blah blah... commit seppuku if not satisfactory to his mother...blah bla- What in fucking hell?!?! Ranma carefully reread that particular passage. It was signed in Genma's hasty scrawl and for Ranma a blue handprint had sufficed. The Oneness throbbed within Ranma's mind, and only when he felt the sensation did he realize that he had sunk into the emotionless state.   
What was wrong with the woman's mind? Nodoka had always seemed a little wierd, but that was just how parents were. Ranma shook his head and channeled. Fire alone would have been more dramatic, but instead he wove Fire and Earth, and the contract crumbled to dust in his hands. Nodoka shot to her feet, a picture of righteous indignation. Ranma had her bound and gagged with the Power before she could even draw breath to berate him.   
With the residue of the gateway still fresh, the portal snapped into being quicker than normal. Ranma wasted no time in channeling his tv and dvd player, along with his box of porns and dvds, through the portal and into his room at his grandfather's place. He ignored his mother's red face and glare of death. The flows that held her would dissolve in a few minutes, but that didn't mean she wouldn't be as angry as if he had left her restrained for a week. Halfway through the gateway, Ranma turned around and channeled his posters off the walls of his room. The scantily clad women followed him in single file. Just for fun, Ranma had each of them turn towards his mother and appear to wink at her before following him through the portal.  
  
****  
  
Ranma Traveled, his destination a jungle somewhere in the jungle's of Brazil. He opened his gateway almost flush with the tent wall that was his grandfather's and stepped through quickly, letting it close almost as soon as he was through. It wasn't very late, though the sun had set. He knew he would find Arin at the Portal Stone, tinkering away at it with a tripod mounted ter'angreal. It looked like a fortune teller's crystal ball to Ranma, but Arin assured him that it was a highly sophisticated patterning device, whatever that meant.  
  
There were other people around as well. Men hired to help clear the site and archeologists and their students bustled around the camp, all looking busy. Ranma couldn't see what was so important over bits and pieces of broken clay pots, but he didn't care how other people spent their time as long as it didn't affect him. Powerful flood lights illuminated the entire area of cleared jungle. Walking through the humid night air, Ranma momentarily wondered why there were no insects buzzing around the lights or attempting to drink his blood. Jungles were notorious for that kind of thing. He felt the wards of saidin before he saw them. The obvious answer is almost always the correct answer, or so the saying went.  
  
Ranma found his grandfather exactly where he had expected him to be, sitting before the massive Portal Stone. The ter'angreal before him glowed with saidin that only a male channeler could see, and from it ranged impossibly thin flows of Spirit and Fire, each intwining itself around the stone and doing whatever it was supposed to do. Ranma could fine his flows down to a nearly atomic level, where seeing them was more of an awareness of where they were than actual sight, but these were even thinner, if that was possible.  
  
He was about to jump down to the level his grandfather was on, when he cuaght sight of Kuno out of the corner of his eye. Kuno? What was he doing here? Ranma changed course and picked his way through the barely cleared rubble and debris to where Kuno was leaning on his bokken, staring out into the cloudless night sky.  
  
"Fancy meeting you here," Ranma said lightly, still unsure of how his student had ended up in the jungle.  
  
"Ah, Saotome-sensei, I trust you are well this fine evening? Beautiful isn't it, all the stars I mean." Kuno shook himself and looked over to Ranma who stood several inches shorter than him yet somehow seemed of equal height.   
  
"Yeah, no pollution and no lights. So, how'd you end up out here?" Ranma had an idea, but he wanted Kuno to confirm it before he started screaming.  
  
Kuno somehow managed to look sheepish. "Earlier today I experienced one of those increases in strength you spoke of. It was enough to allow me to create a Traveling gateway of my own. I had hoped to find you at your grandfather's dwelling, but you weren't there. Your grandfather found me before I could return home and asked me to accompany him. An amazingly spry considering his age."  
  
Ranma had been correct. Kuno had made a gateway without supervision, something he had been expressly forbidden to do. For some reason, though, he just didn't feel like shouting at Kuno, or even telling him he was wrong. The rebuke would most likely just bounce off his thick skull anyway. Besides, Ranma preferred to save his anger up for his insane parents. "Just this once, and only once, am I not going to say anything about you not following my instructions. There are dangers involved in Traveling that you can't yet understand." Arin had once shown Ranma what an unravelling gateway could do. They were like small tactical nukes, but without the radiation. Ranma had even secretly experimented with creating small gateways, little larger than mouse holes, and purposely disrupting their weaves. The attempt had left him deaf for a week and doubled the size of the rock pit near his grandfather's home.  
  
Kuno nodded seriously and asked,"Would you like to practice the sword for the time being while we wait for your grandfather to finish his work?"  
  
Trying to beat Kuno to death with a stick did sound like a good way to relieve some stress. Ranma wasn't actually able to beat Kuno, or even hit him really, but he could keep himself from getting pounded on. He nodded and Kuno pulled another bokken from within his baggy kendo garb and tossed it to his teacher.  
  
****  
  
Arin ignored the clatter of sword striking sword in the background, focussed entirely on the crystal sphere that rested before him. It allowed him to perform amazingly complex and delicate feats of channeling, then analyzed various data it collected from the returning weaves of Fire and Spirit as they looped through each destination symbol carved into the Portal Stone and returned to the ter'angreal.  
  
He hadn't made study of Portal Stones an important part of his research, like some scientists who sought to unlock the mysteries of their origin and creation, but he was familiar with several dozen destinations they could transport a channeler to. None of them were found within this stone, not even the most basic symbols that did nothing but hold the traveller in stasis then deposit him at the same stone a certain amount of time later, depending on the amount of Power used.  
  
There was plenty of time for some ivestigation, at least. The doorway still needed enormous amounts of energy to finish priming it, and even if Kuno progressed to a level where he could aid Arin and Ranma, there would be dozens of sessions charging it.  
  
****  
  
Author's Notes - Nothing to say really. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with Nabiki, but it'll come to me eventually. Does anyone think I mishandled the situation betwee Ranma and his mother? 


	5. 4

Through The Ages - Chapter Four  
  
Ranma glared dangerously at Kuno as he entered the school grounds the morning after their visit to his grandfather's jungle site. His right arm was in a cast up to the elbow and he wore a sling around his neck to support the broken limb. Oh yes, lots of stress relief involved in getting one's arm broken by an unnaturally skilled swordsman and his equally unnatural wooden sword.  
  
Kuno looked as if he were about to cross the courtyard and speak to his teacher, but the look Ranma was directing at him somehow penetrated to his brain and he thought better of the action. His shoulders slumped and he turned to face a group of kendo club members. He was instructing the group in tactics that they could use to subdue Akane in the upcoming morning fight. Not that Ranma would let them win, but Kuno wanted his fellow idiots to make a halfway decent showing of themselves.  
  
This morning Ranma opted for a simple, but effective glowing fist of Air. It swung back and forth through Akane's attackers, knocking them aside and piling them into two heaps, one on either side of the girl. The funny part was that by the time almost all the boys were finished, Akane was making funny gestures, thinking that they were somehow controlling the arm.  
  
Ranma growled soundlessly and returned to the Oneness as he was jostled about in the hallway, aggravating his broken arm. He wished Healing could be used on one's self. Too bad it didn't work that way and Arin was a poor Healer. Ranma wasn't about to let Kuno even attempt anything nearly so complex as the weaves involved in healing a broken bone. He shrugged through the questions asked by a few aquaintences about his arm and waved of more than a few concerned girls. At least the break was clean and small. He'd be able to get the cast of in a little over a month if he was lucky.  
  
"Well now, what have we here?" Ranma recognized the voice as Nabiki's, and he turned around slowly to face her. She still had her camera around her neck from taking pictures of Akane's 'magic' and there was a stray leaf tangled in her hair.  
  
"You mean this?" Ranma pulled the loose side of his coat back to better show his arm. Nabiki nodded. "Training accident. I shoulda known better than ask Kuno to stop holding back. Oh well, we gotta learn from our mistakes, eh?"  
  
"Too true. Listen, Ranma," Nabiki began, not really sounding concerned, but somehow coming across as if she were,"Kuno is a buffoon. I know you've been getting along with him so far, but you should be careful around him anyway."  
  
"It really was a mistake, Nabiki. You should have seen his face when he realized he had hurt me. It was pathetic." The last bell for class rang. "That's my cue. Thanks for caring, by the way," he finished, grinning slightly before slipping into the crowd.  
  
Nabiki stared after him, wondering why he thought she cared. Arrogant boy. She had a right to know wether he was going to use his injury to back out of their upcoming date. Saturday nights were some of her sparse free time, and she didn't plan on wasting it by not making any plans if Ranma got himself hospitalized by Kuno.  
  
****  
  
Ranma got out of doing anything in gym thanks to his condition. It had to have a few perks, afterall. He spent the time lounging, mostly, though every so often he would channel a flow of Air and redirect the softball the girls were using to make it look like it dropped out of the air and into Akane's glove or accelerate a kicked soccer ball from the boy's game to a net slashing blur. The boys took the occassional phenomena in good stride, likely assuming that their own skill and strength was involved. The softball team opposing Akane's looked ready to do murder.  
  
"Is it true that you're going out with Nabiki Tendo on saturday?" asked one of the boys in the locker room. Hiroshi, the boy was a pervert, but not a pervert in a bad way. Ranma had even borrowed some porn from him and Daisuke, his friend.  
  
Ranma shrugged and replied,"Yeah. Why do you care?"  
  
More than one boy looked at Ranma with pity in their eyes and sympathy on their faces. Ranma had heard some stories about the girl, and had seen her in action enough times to know that she was a money grubbing scoundrel, but he was a bit unnerved by the boys' reactions.  
  
"He's so brave."  
  
"Must be rich, too."  
  
"She is hot, but it's not worth it."  
  
Those and several other comments came from all over the room. Daisuke pulled his shirt on and said,"We're just looking out for you, that's all. No one in our class has ever gone out with her, but we've all heard the stories. Hundred thousand yen credit card bills, that kind of thing. One guy had to sale his car to make the payments from one date. And whatever you do, don't let her loan you money. Two hundred percent interest rates are evil."  
  
It seemed that everyone had a piece of advice to give him, and Ranma accepted it all greatly, fearing that he may have gotten in over his head. He couldn't cancel the date now, not without looking like a chicken, but saturday was looking a lot less friendly by the minute. In exchange for the help, Ranma said,"Thanks a lot, you guys. Since we're on the subject, I can warn you all about Sara. She looks harmless, but she has whips and she likes to use them." From that point on the conversation degenerated into a cesspool of perversion that made even Ranma shake his head in disbelief. Hiroshi and Daisuke were simply in a class of their own.  
  
****  
  
"I really think I'm beginning to get control of it, Nabiki," Akane cheerfully informed her sister as they walked home from school. "I almost had it today. Once I can make the magic do what I want, I should be able to use it for more than just beating up boys and embarrassing myself. Isn't that great?" Akane as a thumb-sized piece of quartz hanging on a chain around her neck, along with a dozen beaded necklaces that were supposed to focus her powers, or so an old book she'd found in the library said.  
  
"You've been saying that for weeks, sis." Nabiki had managed to accept Akane's newest displays easily enough. Just something else her sister could do that she couldn't. It all balanced out, really. Nabiki knew she had the brains in the family, she didn't grudge Akane the muscle.  
  
Akane 'humphed', but didn't lose her cheer. "Soon, you'll see." She pulled a small, leather bound book from her school bag and began to flip through it until she found her place and started reading. Nabiki caught the words 'tantra and power' but not enough to make out what the subject of the book was really about, though she knew of tantra well enough.  
  
Walking along in silence, Nabiki tried to decide how much she should bet on wether or not her date with Ranma would be a failure or if she should even bet at all. A few feet from the gate to their home, she deiced to just wait and see how the polls were on friday. If she stood to gain enough, a small sacrifice like ruining a single evening out with a boy she didn't even know wouldn't be very difficult to make.  
  
She was glad that Akane was too preoccupied with her studies of the esoteric to pay much attention to the rumors and gossip that floated around the school. It had been a mistake on the part of one of her less talented factors that released the news of the date, and the last thing she needed was for her sister to tell their father that she was going out with the very boy he wanted her or one of her sisters to marry. Fool man that he was, he'd likely take it for a sign of her acceptance of fate, or something like that.  
  
****  
  
Gosunkugi gazed fondly at Akane. She was so perfect. Beautiful. Fierce. Strong. She could do magic. Just thinking about what he saw her do every morning made the boy shiver in delight. Somehow he had to convince her to teach him the secrets of true magic. The thought of flinging bolts of lighting from his hands and raining down fire and brimstone on his enemies was one of the few reasons he had left to live. Of course there was the hope that an attractive nymphomaniac would fall head over heels in love with him, but magic was the more realistic of the two dreams, so he would go after it first.  
  
He snapped off as many pictures as he had left on the roll from the picture session from the day before and loaded another roll into the camera in a smooth, practiced motion. He had a lot of practice with that camera. He went through that roll in a little over a minute and decided that was enough for the day. He didn't want to risk Akane detecting him with her magic. He shuffled around the corner and towards home, but then remembered that he was running low on the chemicals he needed to develop his latest pictures. A quick stop by Stalkers Inc. and he was on his way home.  
  
****  
  
"Ranma, you're just in time to celebrate with me," Arin said as Ranma climbed down the crooked stone steps into the bowl-like area where the Portal Stone rested. His balance was slightly off because of the arm strapped to his chest, so it was slow going.   
  
"Good news?" Ranma asked when he finally reached the bottom.  
  
"I've finally found the set of symbols that control time differences and stasis. There are some rather strange time increments programmed into them, but the larger ones will serve our purposes well enough. Nothing worth breaking out the champagne over, but it's a small step." Ranma agreed and left his grandfather to his work. He didn't know why the man continued to map the stone if he already had the information he needed.   
  
There were fewer people about the ruins than the night before. A few younger people were carting away rubble and some were brushing dirt away from half-buried objects with tiny little brushes. Ranma could have done all of that in a blink of his eye, but Arin had forbidden it, so he didn't bring it up again. Pathways between the wire grids led around various structures, some intact but most collapsed. Ranma took his time browsing among them, noticing subtle hints that the Power had been used her for more than activating a Portal Stone.  
  
Stone walls that curved unnaturally, though almost imperceptibly were common, as well as Power joined and shaped building blocks. Some of the stones must have weighed a dozen tons or more, but all were fitted together perfectly, the blocks fitted together so well that no mortar had been needed. Ranma reached out with tendrils of Earth, nodding to himself when he felt the internally joined stones. Someone with the ability to channel, saidin or saidar, he couldn't discern, had fused the blocks together, possibly even set them in place. The results were man-made, Power wrought stone walls that were completely solid and in some cases nearly indestructible.  
  
"What are you doing in here?" someone snapped from behind Ranma. He hadn't heard the young man's approach with all the sounds of broken stone being shifted outside.  
  
"Just looking around. Interesting place." Ranma turned away from the older man and resumed his study of the walls.  
  
"Are you authorized to be here?" the same man asked. He hadn't left and he didn't sound happy.  
  
"I don't know, probably not. My grandfather is the guy in charge around here, though, so he probably doesn't mind." Instead of doing something petty *he saved that all up for Akane*, Ranma just went back to examining the wall, completely ignoring the irritating man until he heard him stomp off somewhere. Heh, a less physical version of Akane. Maybe he should have done something petty, afterall.  
  
****  
  
"He had powers, Tendo, strange and frightening powers. That crazy grandfather of his, Arin, taught them to the boy, brainwashed him too. He gave up the martial arts, Tendo, can you believe it?" Genma sobbed. "I couldn't even teach him the error of his ways. How was I supposed to fight the boy if he hit me with a bolt of lightning every time I tried to discipline him."  
  
Soun's formerly tear streaked face became almost euphoric. "Well, Saotome, you're problem doesn't sound all that bad, really. Why, my little Akane seems to be learning magic of her own. Nabiki sold me a video from school and Akane was making lightning just like your Ranma." He waited for a few moments for the idea to sink in. "It's perfect, old friend. They were made for one another. And if Akane becomes powerful enough, she can make Ranma learn the Art once again."  
  
Genma's manly sobs ceased immediately. "Tendo, you're an absolute genius!"  
  
"The only difficulty I can forsee is getting Akane to agree to the engagement. She has always been a stubborn, strong-willed girl, not unlike her mother. I know, I'll have Kasumi speak to her. That always works!" Soun sobered up some when he saw Genma's happy face crumble, to be replaced by depression once again.  
  
"It's no use. The boy's run away from home. Nodoka made the mistake of showing him that seppuku contract I told you about. He wasn't happy about it. He's living with Arin now, in America. He uses his powers to get to school everyday, but I know he's actually living in America."  
  
"We must catch him off guard while he attends Furinkan, then," Soun stated boldly. Genma wanted to protest. He was sure their efforts would be both painful and futile. He had to try, though, for the sake of his school and his honor, he had to try.  
  
****  
  
"That was uncalled for," Ranma heard a boy say as he watched Akane battling her morning opponents. To everyone it looked like Akane had purposely thrown a fireball into an unconscious boy's crotch, but the truth was that Ranma had sneezed and momentarily lost control of his weave. Sneeze wasn't really the proper word. For something to make someone feel a sneeze from within the Oneness, it had to be closer to a rib cracking spasm. Ranma silently cursed his father and Soun Tendo.  
  
They had tried to grab him a few yards from the gate. Of course the attempted kidnapping was laughable in its stupidity, and easily handled in most situations, but Ranma had overreacted and ended up exploding a good sized piece of sidewalk. Genma and Soun probably needed to visit a hospital to have their burns looked at, but Ranma was more concerned with the small cloud of concrete dust he had breathed in by mistake.  
  
The fireball wouldn't do much more than singe, despite its deadly appearance, so Ranma wasn't concerned. "She's a man hater, what can you expect?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Yeah, that's obvious, but there are some lines that should just not be crossed," came the reply. Ranma guessed the boy had probably been down there in that mob of boys on more than one occassion. Hell, it had probably been Akane's 'magic' that had frightened him off. Ranma's interfernce had suprisingly lowered the overall number of injuries among the male students. Fewer participated every day and Ranma was able to give the appearance of boys being blasted to hell and back when they were in truth getting pushed around and knocked out. Akane wasn't nearly so discerning when she had been physical about the fights.  
  
"Oooooo," came a collective gasp as Akane quite purposefully stepped on another boy's groin and ground her foot into the concrete beneath her. The high pitched shriek reached the classroom easily. Ranma winced and sent a web of Spirit into the boy's mind to numb the pain. Several students, boys and girls, looked a little green in the face and one particularly sensitive girl had to make a mad dash to the restroom to empty her stomach. Akane an evil bitch, Ranma decided. Maybe a day or two without any channeling to help her would teach her a lesson. Or maybe not. It was worth a try. He'd give her a couple days before he stopped interfering.  
  
"Someone wanna tell the nurse to call the hospital just in case she ruptured something?" Ranma called out to the class. The teacher arrived before anyone could volunteer. Everyone grudgingly left the window and returned to their seats moments before the final bell rang for class to begin.  
  
****  
  
"Akane, I fot a letter from your school today," Soun announced a few days later. The man looked half mummified from the bandages that covered a significant portion of his body. Most of the burns weren't serious, but they were still painful and a risk of infection. The cracked pelvis was agonizing, though, so Soun didn't try to get up from his position on the futon.  
  
"What's it about, daddy?" Akane asked curiously. She was rearranging her ever growing collection of necklaces and bracelets.  
  
"It seems that you were overly brutal with one of the boys that accosts you every morning. The doctors that looked after him had to remove one of his testicles and his penis may never function properly again. What do you have to say for yourself, young lady?" Soun looked displeased, but that could have just been the pain involved in moving his lips.  
  
Akane looked down at the floor, a slight flush suffusing her cheeks. "Uh...sorry, I guess. I just got carried away...and he is a pervert boy, you know? I didn't mean to do THAT to him. I guess I should apologize to him, huh?"  
  
Soun attempted to smile, but it came out as a sort of half smirk, half grimace. "Not at all. He wants you to teach him magic. I don't know if that's the most reasonable thing to do for someone you've maimed for life, but the school is threatening to expel you if he or his parents choose to further pursue the matter. Here," he handed her a slip of paper with an address on it,"that's where he stays and his phone number. It's up to you to work out an agreement with him."  
  
"Hmmm, Gosunkugi Hikaru...that name seems familiar. I can't quite place it though. Oh well, if he wants to learn magic, I can't blame him." Akane put on her best happy face and maintained it until she was out of her father's presence. What was she going to do?! She couldn't teach a boy magic!!! What if he decided to use it against her once he had the secret, or worse, taught the other perverted boys at school and they all used it against her? Maybe she could scare him so badly that he wouldn't want to learn. Yes, that had to work.  
  
****  
  
Author's Notes - Yay, another chapter. Nothing really happened in this one, but the next few should be more active. Everyone clap for iMesh. I can use it to download anime and porn and stuff now even though my evil school tries to block all the file transfer stuff. Anyone ever seen Cool Devices? 


	6. 5

Through The Ages - Chapter 5  
  
Driving Arin's motorcycle with part of his right hand encased in a cast was tricky, but as long as Ranma didn't put too much weight on it he could steer well enough that it didn't matter. Flows of Air and Fire served to alter accelleration and change gears, modifications made by Arin when he had purchased the vehicle. Ranma didn't know why the man had wasted the money, he'd never even seen his grandfather ride the thing.   
  
They hit a small pothole, jarring the motorcycle and causing Nabiki to clutch herself to his back even tighter than before. Nabiki had been reluctant to climb on behind Ranma, not out of fear, she insisted. Once he had suggested she was afraid, though, the girl had gritted her teeth, shoved the helmet down over her head and attached herself to Ranma's back. They both would have been freezing if Ranma hadn't channeled into being a bubble of warm air that followed along loyally.  
  
Traffic was suprisingly light, at least for a Saturday night, and Ranma guessed they'd be arriving at the theatre any minute. He would have chosen something more original himself, but Nabiki wanted to watch a movie, so they would watch a movie. He slowed the bike to a stop at a traffic light, and the slight delay in forward speed saved Ranma from getting a spear through his heart. The long bladed spearhead slammed into the asphault an inch from the front tire and buried itself half a foot into the pavement.  
  
While the spear shaft was still quivering from its missed strike, Ranma wove a barrier of Air that would stop virtually anything with any substance from passing through it. A fraction of a second later enough arrows, shuriken, and daggers rebounded off of the barrier to fell a small army. Nabiki was screaming something unintelligeble, but it sounded like she meant to do serious harm to Ranma. He ignored her, untying the flows partially so that the barrier would move with the motorcycle.  
  
Once he had reshaped the barrier so that it didn't create so much drag, they were speeding down the streets of Tokyo, no specific destination in mind. Nabiki had stopped pounding on Ranma's back when she realized that he was ignoring her. Ranma couldn't get up to top speed, thanks to numerous obstacles in their path, but he still managed to put some distance between them and their attackers. Or so he thought. As soon as Ranma slowed down so that he could pull into a small alley, a dozen arrows struck the back of the barrier.  
  
Ranma knew who his attackers were, of course. He had been the target of enough unusually painted arrows and carved spears to know an Amazon weapon when he saw one. So much for hoping he had left them back in China where they belonged. How many of them did he have to kill to get some peace? With a growl, Ranma changed direction and turned sharply into the alleyway. He continued to accelerate, until there would be no possible way to stop in time to avoid hitting the wall that was only a few feet before them.  
  
Nabiki was screaming again. Ranma ignored her, her shouts of terror and rage barely even reaching him in the void of the Oneness. The gateway snapped into existance a split second before the invisible barrier surrounding the motorcycle collided with the wall. The gateway closed behind the pair before any Amazons could follow them through, though a few stray arrows did manage to get through in time, all of which bounced harmlessly off the shield of Air.  
  
Ranma cut Power to the modified motorcycle and pulled them to a haught. Instantly, Nabiki leapt from the back of the vehicle and threw her helmet to the ground. Ranma had never seen her look anything but calm or slightly annoyed. It was quite a suprise to see her look nearly insane with terror. He had figured Nabiki had almost reached her own personal Oneness. She was breathing too hard to speak, taking great heaving breaths that would soon have her hyperventilating if she didn't slow down. Ranma didn't interfere with her, just in case she decided to claw his eyes out for risking her life.  
  
The gateway had deposited them on the outer perimeter of his grandfather's archeological dig in South America. The powerful flood lights illuminated what would otherwise be total darkness. Ranma pulled his own helmet off and climbed off the motorcycle, trying to come up with a way to explain to Nabiki what had just happened. A minute passed before she got herself together well enough to walk slowly up to Ranma where he was leaning against the sleek black crotch rocket.  
  
"What in hell was all that about?!" she shouted almost hysterically. "How did we get here?!?! Where is here?!?! Damnit, answer me!!!" The girl looked ready to go into convulsions from the way her red face was contorted. Ranma tried to reach out with his good arm to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder but she slapped it away indignantly.  
  
Ranma had seen Akane in a fit, but she couldn't hold a candle to her older sister. He was wondering if he should restrain her, for his own safety, when his grandfather climbed over a pile of boulders that had once been a series of columns. The man was dirt streaked and looked exhausted, but he was smiling jovially, at least until he saw the serious expression on his grandson's face and the distressed girl screaming at him.  
  
For lack of a better solution, Ranma channeled Spirit and put Nabiki into a deep, dreamless sleep.  
  
****  
  
Arin was sipping the swill meant to pass for coffee that the scientists on site brewed daily. He took a sip, grimaced, and spoke,"Well, boy, you've got to explain it to her, at least partially. Neither of us have enough skill with Compulsion to erase the memory or make her forget. You're better at it than me and the best we could hope for would be to turn her into a zombie."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I know all that," Ranma snapped angrilly. "Why did they have to pick now to try to get me? Why did they even have to come after me?! Stupid women, stupid old man. If he could have controlled his damned stomach for an hour none of this mess would have happened." Ranma kicked a loose pebble across the medical tent where Nabiki slept peacefully on a small cot.  
  
Arin's face darkened. "Why I didn't do something about him when your mother tooking a liking to that waste of flesh, I don't know." He sighed. "I suppose it's a good thing I didn't do anything rash, or you may not have been around." He went back to trying to drink the coffee while Ranma glared hatefully at the pebble. "So, what are you going to do?"  
  
Ranma shrugged. "Tell her about channeling and China. She doesn't need to know anything else. It's going to be hard enough to keep her from trying to exploit that information. Looks like it's time to leave Japan for a while. Kuno is far enough along that he can create his own gateways. He'll just have to come to me for lessons." The pebble shivered into dust as Ranma channeled at it.  
  
"This is turning out to be a lot of trouble, you know? I'll have to get you enrolled in a school in the states. Don't even argue, you need an education. Don't worry about your parents, they probably won't go through legal channels to get you back. If they do, it'll take them so long to manage it that you'll be eighteen and free from their authority anyway." It pained Arin deeply to see his granddaughter turning out to be such a loon. It was a wonder that Ranma turned out so well.  
  
"She's starting to come around," Ranma cautioned.   
  
Arin smiled slightly and said,"I'll leave you to your fate, good luck." He hurried out of the tent.   
  
****  
  
Nabiki's eyes cracked open partially and she raised a hand to the side of her head with a moan. "Ugh, talk about a lame nightmare. Didn't even have any tentacle demons," she said, unaware of her surroundings.  
  
"Have a nice nap?" Ranma asked lightly.   
  
Nabiki sat up quickly. Her eyes raked across Ranma, the interior of the tent, then down to herself. She looked back at Ranma and he responded,"Nope, not a dream. We really were nearly murdered by a lot of angry psycho super feminists. Well I was nearly murdered by the psychos, you were just along for the ride."  
  
Now that there weren't numerous sharp, pointy objects of death flying around, Nabiki kept her composure, not even screaming as she spoke. "This is the worst date I've ever been on."  
  
"You're taking this pretty well. Or are you going to freak out and start screaming again?" Make her defensive, then she would be too busy to worry about killing him.  
  
"Oh, I'm not taking this well at all, Ranma, not at all. First you are going to explain to me why 'psycho feminists' are trying to kill you. Then you are going to explain in detail how you made a force field, or whatever that thing was that stopped the arrows. Oh, and I would also like to know what that hole in the wall was that we drove through. Well, start talking."  
  
Ranma grinned, and explained.  
  
****  
  
Comfortable for the most part, Ranma grinned nastily at his father. Genma, who didn't have the aide of the Power to shield himself from the monsoon-like downpour looked thoroughly bedraggled. His bulkly, yet suprisingly muscular frame was weighted down with a sodden gi and equally water logged back pack. That he was mud spattered and quite cold only increased Ranma's good mood. He'd let his grandfather convince him that a trip with Genma could form a bond between them. It had failed miserably. At least, Ranma reflected, the trip got him out of school for a while.  
  
For months now, Genma had led them across the wilds of China. Ranma had been inititally suprised over just how much open land there was when he'd heard so much about the overpopulation problems the country was experiencing. There were some beautiful places, especially high up in the mountains. All in all, not a bad waste of time. Of course, Ranma had to beat his father into submission every morning and at periodic times during the day. What difference did it make if he used the Power instead of Genma's precious martial arts?  
  
"Three days without sight of anything remotely resembling civilization," Ranma began. "Are we going to be seeing people any time soon?"   
  
Genma turned to glare at his son. "As a matter of fact, another half day's hike or so should bring us to a village renowned for the martial prowess of its warriors. Maybe they can teach you the error of your ways." Genma had heard the rumors that the village was populated mainly by women, but had dismissed them without thought. Women were not warriors, not from his point of view, at least.  
  
A half day's hike turned into a two day session of dodge the pretty lightning bolts of death. Ranma didn't enjoy tormenting his father as much as he thought he would, but the Oneness really put a damper on emotions. By the time they left the rocky mountain passes and came to a small, relatively flat valley, Genma was dropping to the ground at every sound above a whisper. In the distance, a village could barely be seen through the mist that blanketed some sections of the valley. His vision enhanced by the Oneness, Ranma was able to see the outer edge of the log palisades that formed a sort of crude defense for the village.  
  
He almost laughed at the absurdity of such a pathetic gesture. The Chinese army could have crushed the tiny place like most people did an annoying bug. Then again, he reminded himself, there hadn't really been any signs of a government this far into the wilderness. Looking at it from that perspective, Ranma could see where such a wall could make a group of bandits think twice.  
  
"Finally. After a few weeks of intense training, we can visit the legendary training grounds of Jusenkyo." Genma's blunt featured face split into a child-like grin of utter anticipation. Ranma shuddered at the lack of intelligence in the man's eyes.  
  
By now, Ranma had learned that arguing with Genma about training was pointless. He seemed to automatically assume that Ranma would fight him with his fists whenever he ambushed him or attacked him in his sleep. Sleeping, Ranma couldn't really defend himself, but the wards he erected around himself nightly had more than enough power to electrocute his father into submission. When he was awake, Ranma tried to be more creative, though he often just resorted to smashing his father over the head with clubs of Air until he lost consciousness.  
  
****  
  
"There are still places like that in China?" Nabiki interrupted.  
  
Ranma nodded vigorously. "Oh yes, real rustic in some of the more out of the way areas. Now, back to the story."  
  
****  
  
Ranma was getting a weird feeling about this place. Nothing seemed overtly threatening, not in any obvious ways, anyway, but the men they'd passed who were working in the fields surrounding the village looked strange, their movements unnatural and listless, almost like they were dead. The shields Ranma wove around himself were comprehensive, even tuned to deflect most attacks from the Power. He wasn't sure, but from what his grandfather had told him, some of those men looked like they were under heavy Compulsion. The only way to ward off that type of attack was to grasp the One Power and hold to it firmly. Genma would have to fend for himself.  
  
"Be on guard, boy," Genma whispered in a low toned growl.  
  
Suprised that his father could actually be insightful, Ranma nodded. As an added precaution, he began to build a massive weaving. It came together slowly and consisted mainly of Fire, but with a considerable amount of Air and Earth added to focus the effect. Ranma continued to knot flows into the tapestry of Power that only he could see, until he couldn't find any space to add any further flows. If he detonated the knotted weave, Ranma fully expected to be responsible for the destruction of a mojority of the village; hundreds of bolts of explosive heat lightning tended to have that effect.   
  
He left the weaving where he'd completed it, which happened to be just before the entrance to the village. It hovered where he wished, a glowing presence that literally throbbed with energy, only connected by him by a fine flow of Fire, the fuse. It was overkill, sure, but when it came down to it, Ranma would kill a thousand to save himself. If he was attacked, they were enemies, so...  
  
Genma glanced at him sharply. "I'm not sure if this was such a good idea," the man concluded, making Ranma nearly trip in shock, even within the Oneness. Genma admitting that he was wrong?! Impossible. "Just have some of your hocus pocus ready," he finished.  
  
Sniffing indignantly at the 'hocus pocus' comment, Ranma prepared a few simple weaves. The earlier weaving, even at this distance dwarfed them in Power. The lane they were walking down consisted solely of heavily compacted soil, firm under their feet but giving slightly. To either side were small houses, huts in some cases, constructed of bamboo or plane wooden clapboard. The majority of the roofs were thatched, though some sported ceramic tiling. All in all, nothing remarkable so far.  
  
Every so often as they walked towards the center of the village, Ranma caught sight of a women walkin between the homes or a small child sitting on a doorstep playing with a doll or simple wooden toy. The inhabitants of the village seemed to be thronging in the village square, if the cheers could be believed. They found where everyone was when they finally reached the center of the village.  
  
Women, and only women, were cheering madly while two women tried to beat each other to death. The women were balanced on a rope suspended log, trading blows with their weapons much to the crowds pleasure. The lavender-haired women, a girl really, wielded a pair of what looked like decorative bowling balls on sticks, and her opponent, a women easily three times her weight swung a large, curved sword. Steel rang on steel for several minutes, until finally, with a savage kick, the lovely, bouncy girl knocked the giant to the turf. Ranma cheered as loudly as anyone. The lavender haired girl was hot! Well endowed too.  
  
****  
  
"Hmm hmmmm," Nabiki coughed disapprovingly, glaring at Ranma.  
  
"Well, it's true. If it makes you feel any better, you've got a nice rack, too." He winced at the thoughtless comment, then winced again when Nabiki kicked him in the shins with her sharp pointed high heeled shoes.  
  
****  
  
The crowd busied itself chanting something that sounded like Shan Poo. Ranma busied himself with trying to find his blasted father. Genma wasn't particularly difficult to locate, especially since Ranma could make out the flying remnants of food that indicated the man was feeding. Wondering how his mother could have ever seen anything worthwhile in Genma, animal that he was, Ranma pushed his way through the villagers just in time to see his father finish decimating what must have once been a feast. Now, however, the table was littered with bones, empty bowls, bread crusts and anything else not edible.  
  
Hoping that Genma had enough cash on hand to pay for the damages, Ranma smacked him in the back of the head with a bit of Air. "What d'ya think you're doing, old man? We just ate breakfast a few hours ago!"  
  
Genma clutched a half-eaten haunch of beef to his chest, as if Ranma were going to attempt to steal it, eying his son warily. "I was hungry, boy, and all this food was just sitting here, going to waste."  
  
"Did you ever think that they may have been saving it for after the fight?" Ranma snapped harshly. "Honestly, man, are you completely brainless? Even you could sense that there was danger here, and what do you do, you go and eat their freakin feast!"  
  
"Boy, don't talk to your father like that," Genma demanded, puffing his chest out irritably.  
  
Before Ranma could say anything else, he became aware of an angry muttering sound coming from the crowd, only that it sounded like the entire crowd was muttering. He turned to face them, wondering whether or not he should shield his father, when some hideous, troll-like creature bounced to the forfront of the women. She was actually 'bouncing' along on a staff that appeared even more gnarled that herself.  
  
She spouted something out in slow, completely unrecognizable Chinese. Ranma didn't even know what particular dialect she was using. She didn't look upset or sound angry, at least, so she couldn't be saying anything particularly bad, right?! Wrong. As soon as the dried out rasping voice ceased speaking, the square was filled with the disturbing sound of many, many sharp pointy things being drawn from their sheaths. That didn't even include the women with less orthodox weapons.  
  
Ranma hadn't actually ever had to kill anyone, and even though he knew he could if his own life depended on it, he didn't particularly 'want' to. So, slightly desperate, he asked in Japanese,"Why's everyone so upset?" It was just a little food, afterall, nothing worth commiting murder over. Ranma saw it that was anyway.   
  
The woman, if that's what she really was, raised a questioning eyebrow at his use of Japanese and obviously lack of aptitude in Chinese. What did she expect, for everyone in China to speal the damned language?   
  
"This man, whom I assume you are in some way associated with, has violated Amazon law and dishonored the newly named champion in the worst way imaginable," she replied in perfect Japanese.  
  
No wonder he'd felt that entering this village was dangerous. It was full of psycho women. Amazons? Feh, more like tomboys. Dishonored in the worst way imaginable, eh? Scratch out psycho, he was dealing with a new breed of lunatic. Ranma tried to shrug nonchalantly. "He's an idiot, and a glutton, not to mention a thieving bastard...did I mention stupid? What do you expet from scum of the Earth like my old man?"  
  
At this point, Genma became slightly indignant. "Listen here, boy, I'm your father and you'll pay me the-" The gag of Air silenced him with a startled grunt. The man was unable to close his mouth, causing his jaw to gape stupidly.  
  
"We've got some money in one of our packs. It's not much, but that's the best I can do," Ranma continued. "I'd leave him here to work off the stain on her honor, or something equally demeaning, it's just that my mom would be pissed at me and I'd rather not eat take-out for the next couple years." Without waiting for an answer, Ranma relived himself of his pack and began rummaging through the hidden pocket he'd had sewn into the lining. It had become apparent early on that they wouldn't have any money left within a week if Genma was left to manage the budget. The rolled wad of bills he retrieved was small, barely thicker than two of his fingers.  
  
Genma looked ready to lunge for the cash, totally disrearding his current predicament. Ranma briefly thought about letting him do so, then standing back and watching him try to fight his way out of the village on his own. He thought better of that plan almost immediately. Genma was quite good as martial artists go, and he may have actually been able to do it, then Ranma would have been stuck hearing the man gloat for years. He made use of Air once again, binding Genma in place.  
  
"We have no need of monetary reimbursement," the tiny little thing rasped disdainfully when Ranma tried to pass the wad to her.  
  
"Well why in hell didn't you tell me? Now the old man knows where I keep it. Honestly, some people have...oh sorry, you're just old, you probably didn't know any better."  
  
****  
  
"Jesus Christ, Ranma, are you a god damned idiot?!" Nabiki all but screeched at him in a very uncharacteristic display of emotion.  
  
Ranma glowered at the girl before answering,"It was intentional. I planned on leaving anyway, and she wasn't being a very polite hostess. Even I have better manners than to treat someone like that without provocation."  
  
"Did you ever consider that by their customs your father's actions may have been provocation?"  
  
"Sure. I mean it was easy to tell that they were pissed at him. 'I' on the other hand hadn't done anything whatsoever, except try to make amends."  
  
****  
  
A few of the women hissed angrily, then a few moments of excited babbling spread through the crowd, followed by an unnatural silence. Ranma had hit the mark with the last one. The elderly creature reagarded him with a cold, dangerous gleam in its oversized eyes. A few swords that had miracuously gone undrawn now joined their bretheren in readiness.  
  
"Now would be a good time to leave," Ranma said to Genma, untying the bonds that held him. Genma stared at Ranma in sickened fascination, probably wondering why he had some sort of death wish.  
  
"You will be going nowhere," the wrinkly thing said without inflection. Ranma became aware of several battle auras flaring through the crowd, the most noticeable being that of the purple-haired champion chick. She now stood a few feet behind the crone, looking murderous, a vein throbbing in her neck accompanied by a twitch in her lower left eye.  
  
Ranma saw Genma drop into a fighting stance, looking strangely serious for once. He turned back to face the Amazons, uncertain of whether he should go for lethal or non-lethal crowd control methods.  
  
****  
  
"You know it's your fault as much as theirs," Nabiki finally said.  
  
"How's that?" Ranma asked. He hadn't seriously intended to use the prewoven trap, or even really hurt anyone. He simply hadn't taken into consideration that some of the Amazons knew abnormally powerful and unusual chi based attacks that tore through his shields with relative ease. Only when his life had really been on the line had he resorted to extreme measures, and for that he'd been hunted for almost a month, unable to stay in one place long enough to learn the area well enough to form a gateway.  
  
Of course he now knew how to shield the chi attacks properly. If he'd bothered to learn earlier he wouldn't have had to eradicate almost an entire village of mostly innocent people. If he'd known how to Skim at the time, the whole bloody situation could have been avoided, but he hadn't, so there was no point in dwelling on it.  
  
"Ignoring the fact that you provoked them pretty thoroughly, you could have just made one of those holes you used earlier and dragged your father through. I don't believe you cared enough about the trip to feel very sorry about ending it early."   
  
Ranma shook his head. "Couldn't do it well enough back then to make one that fast. I normally would have had to stay in an area for at least a few hours to be able to create one of those. It's been pretty recently that I managed to get the secret of making them quickly. It's harder, convenient though."  
  
"Suppose I believe you, and I haven't decided that I do, what about this Power you keep mentioning?"  
  
"You've seen it. I kept us both from being impaled with it and brought us here, to South America with it. Just think of the Power as magic. It's more complicated than that; I just don't feel like trying to explain in detail." What he really wanted to be doing was finding out how the Amazons had found him.  
  
Nabiki's eyes narrowed suspisciously, 'again', and she said,"Akane-her little morning shows, is that the Power?"  
  
Without thinking, Ranma replied,"Nah, that's just me having fun, harmless practical joke."  
  
"Ah ha!" the girl crowed. "She really doesn't have special powers."  
  
Ranma realized that he'd said too much, though Nabiki didn't seem upset, not in the least.   
  
****  
  
Author's Notes - It's about time I got around to finishing this. I've gotten side tracked recently, reading HP fiction. There are some suprisingly good ones out there. I'm in the writing mood again, thank goodness, so you can expect me to post something else sometime soon. 


	7. 6

Through The Ages - Chapter 6  
  
****  
  
"I admit that I could have handled the situation more tactfully, okay?" Ranma conceded finally. Nabiki had gotten over her enthusiasm for discovering Akane's 'powers' to be nothing more than Ranma's twisted sense of humor, now she was back to blaming him for the attack earlier. "It's not like they were just going to let us walk away, you know? Nearly every last one of them had a weapon drawn before I'd even said anything disrespectful. Besides, you should have seen the way they looked at us, like we were dog shit. I may have made things worse for them, but they intended to kill us either way, I'm certain."  
  
"Fine, whatever," Nabiki threw her hands into the air exasperatedly,"let's just get back to our own country. I swear," she continued, staring at the tent wall and speaking to herself,"this really has been the worst date ever, and I've gone out with Kuno before." She shuddered for a few moments then turned to regard Ranma cooly. "Well? My family will be expecting me soon. You don't know my father very well, but he's overprotective in the extreme. I'd rather not have to have him committed due to a nervous breakdown."  
  
"It is 'not' my fault that they attacked us when they did," Ranma grumbled. He'd had bad dates before, the recent Sara incident came to mind most powerfully, but he really couldn't have helped the way this one turned out. "Come on, let's get you back before the old man goes mental."  
  
****  
  
Watching Kuno slashing through boulders with his bokken ter'angreal, Ranma tried to work out exactly how the Amazons had found him. The last confrontation between them had left the surrounding countryside a wasteland of blasted rock and charred grass. That time alone had likely killed a hundred of the overzealous women. The previous encounters, not to mention the original blast that had destroyed over half the village, couldn't have been good for the Amazon population. Hell, there shouldn't be any of them left at all; the village was small, no way could it supporst nearly a thousand people.  
  
The magnitude of the attack the day before meant that there had been quite a few of the warrior women present. Where were they all coming from? Ranma was confronted with the uncomfortable possibility that there were many separate villages full of psycho women out for his blood than just the one he'd originally visited.  
  
"What troubles you, sensei?" Kuno asked, startling Ranma. He had become so wrapped up in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed Kuno walking over to him. Almost as disturbing as the Amazon problem, was Kuno's observation. Was he so transparent that the idiot of a channeller had been able to determine his mood with ease, or was the idiot channeller not such an idiot any longer?  
  
"Oh, nothing much. You know, crazed tribe of women warriors out for my blood, that kind of thing." Well, they wouldn't be able to get him in America, not unless his luck had worsened a great deal in the last few days.  
  
Kuno frowned thoughtfully, casting his features into a disturbing sembalance of intelligence. Ranma shook his head minutely. When his grandfather had told him that Kuno's unusual and tentative grasp on saidin may be effecting his mind, he appeared to have been right on the mark. If only Genma had such an excuse...nevermind, the thought of Genma with access to saidin was worthy of inducing nightmares. "Could it be that they secretly long for you, yet can find no way to express their hidden desires?"  
  
Needless to say, Ranma nearly choked on his own tongue. With a supreme effort of will, he managed not to do something painful to Kuno. It looked like a few last vestiges of idiocy lurked within Kuno's mind afterall. "No, I'm certain that's not the case. They really want to kill me. I'm tired of killing them, though. That's one of the reasons why I'm staying here." Ranma shrugged. "Enough about my problems, let's get back to lessons. I want to finish up early and go see how grandfather's work at the site is coming along."  
  
****  
  
"Yeah, great, wonderful even," Nabiki drawled slowly, trying not to crush her little sister's ego by telling her that she really didn't have magical powers.  
  
"You know, Nabiki, you certainly aren't being very gracious about this. It's not my fault that I have the Gift and you don't. Who knows, maybe it will manifest itself in you one day," Akane sounded sympathetic, smug, and condescending all at once.  
  
For Nabiki, being patronized by her younger sister, a girl she held some affection for but not much respect, that was the final insult, the point of no return. "Oh, a Gift, you say?" she asked pointedly, to which Akane nodded. "Well, I have news for you, little sister. Your so-called Gift is nothing more than an overblown joke." The girl's voice dripped scorn and derision. "Ranma is the one with the Power. I know, I've seen him use it and he's explained it to me a bit."  
  
Akane glared at her sister, clenching her fists at her side. "Real nice, Nabiki, you're showing a lot of maturity now. I can understand you being jealous, but that's no excuse to try to make me doubt my Gift."  
  
The smirk that spread across Nabiki's face was cold, cold and cruel. For weeks she'd had to put up with Akane's superior attitude and mystic mumbo jumbo. This was going to be worked out once and for all. "He transferred to Furinkan the same day your 'Gift' appeared, if you will remember. Now, when have you ever done any of your magic when he wasn't within sight of you, hmmm? That's right, never. The only episode that didn't occur at school happened when he was sitting right across the table from you." Now Nabiki allowed herself to chuckle. "He even had me fooled. I actually thought you had learned to do some magic."  
  
For less than a moment, Akane looked absolutely stricken, then her face smoothed and she assumed the same arrogant mask she'd worn for almost a month. "That is so like you, Nabiki, taking coincidences and twisting them to serve you. You are a petty, cruel person, and I frankly can't stand the sight of you one moment longer." She 'hmmphed', turning on her heel and stomping to her room.  
  
"That didn't go so well," Nabiki remarked to the empty room.   
  
****  
  
Exhausted, Ranma staggered into his tent, joined a few moments later by an equally exhausted Kuno. The doorway's power was nearly restored. The thought cheered Ranma greatly and helped take his mind off just how drained he felt. Now that Kuno was well enough along in his training, he had been able to shave nearly a week off of the activation date. Final priming was so close, his grandfather had informed him, that they would no longer be charging the dorrway until it had been shipped out to the jungle site and properly connected the the Portal stone.  
  
In the excitement and increased activity over the past week, Arin had pretty much forgotten about enrolling Ranma in an American school. Since Ranma had no intention of correcting this oversight, he was left with plenty of time to play around in his grandfather's lab. A prospect that had seemed very appealing only a few years earlier, lost much of its appeal after he'd been electrocuted for the thrid time. That left television and Kuno's lessons. American television left much to be desired, even for Ranma's less than demanding tasted. So, with nothing much to do except for teaching Kuno, Ranma was bored almost out of his mind.  
  
Getting the doorway to South America would take almost two weeks. Ranma didn't intend to spend his final two weeks in this Age vegetating. He'd missed the morning 'magic' show of Akane's for over a week. Ranma wondered what she thought now that her magic powers were no longer working. Had she reverted back to the tried and true methods of blunt force?  
  
Still aching with weariness, Ranma decided that he'd be visiting Furinkan in the morning. The Amzons may still have been searching Nerima for him, of course. Ranma didn't intend to appear as himself, though, so that wouldn't be much of a problem.  
  
****  
  
Akane slammed her hand into the floor in frustration, inadvertently slamming her hand 'into' and through the wood panelling. Not only had her magic failed her, now she was stuck trying to teach Gosunkugi how to do magic when she had no idea how to do it herself. This was all Nabiki's fault. She had made her doubt herself, doubt her power, and now she was paying for her lack of discipline. Until she regained her confidence, she would once again be mundane, non-magical Akane.  
  
Gosunkugi cringed from his mistresses ire, slowly backing himself into a corner and unconsciously shielding his still healing crotch from further injury with an ancient spel book. Akane had been unable to use her magnificent powers for some time, to Gosunkugi's horror, yet she had graciously continued his sorcerous education. He steeled himself for the ordeal. He would master his power then help Akane to recover hers. She would love him forever.  
  
Lost in a variety of perverted fantasies, Gosunkugi didn't notice Akane smashing the furniture and walls of his room into kindling.   
  
****  
  
Ranma didn't get a chance to drop by Furinkan when he Traveled back to Nerima. He'd decided to use his bedroom as an exit point. No one would see him arrive and he could just slip out his window to keep his parents from knowing he was around. Simple plans such as that often come to the worse ends. While nothing bad happened when he stepped through the gateway, Ranma did recieve the shock of his life when he saw his mother and father on his bed. She was on her hands and knees, wearing only a leather corset, while Genma pounded into her like there was no tomorrow.  
  
Turned away from him, they didn't notice his arrival.  
  
"Oh, Genma, oh, har-"  
  
Ranma didn't hear anymore of the exchange. He was too busy screaming, jumping back through his gateway, and vomitting up his breakfast. Somewhere in the back of his mind he realized that he hadn't taken time zones into account and that it was very late in Japan while it was only mid-morning at the ranch. He didn't particularly care what that small part of his brain thought at the moment, though.  
  
Rationally, he could understand his parents having sex. They were a married couple, afterall...but why in Hell had they been doing it on HIS bed?! Then the image of his mother calling out to his father reasserted itself and Ranma dropped back down to the toilet to continue wretching.  
  
****  
  
Finally, Akane worked up the nerve to speak to Nabiki once again. Her sister was wrong about her Gift, she knew, but perhaps she knew something about Ranma taht could help her. The boy must have taken or blocked her magic somehow, it was the only answer remaining that made any sense. Timidly, she knocked on the older girl's door, waiting for a response.  
  
"Who is it?" Nabiki called from within the room.  
  
"Your sister," Akane answered, trying to work out how to ask her sister for help in a way that wouldn't put her in the girl's debt for the next twenty years.  
  
"Come on in, oh high and mighty sorceress," Nabiki replied drolly.  
  
Akane grimaced, then stepped into her sister's room, taking the time required to open and close the door to return her face to a calm, unthreatening mask. It was an effort, even greater than restraining her aura. She wanted to hurt Nabiki for her childish teasing, but she wanted Ranma even more. He would pay for his actions, pay very dearly.  
  
Nabiki was reading a manga that seemed to involve a number of tentacles. "So, Akane, to what do I owe the honor of your visit?"  
  
Akane feared she would cut her palms open with her nails, so tightly did she have her fists clenched. Despite the nearly overwhelming fury she felt, she held herself in check and asked,"Will you help me? That bastard, Saotome, has stolen my powers and you're the only person I know who can find him."  
  
Nabiki took her time returning her comic to a drawer in her bedside table, then streched langorously. She looked to Akane, a knowing smirk casting her features into a slightly sinister grimace. "He has? That's news to me. I could've sworn that you have to have powers in the first place for them to be taken away. My mistake."  
  
Not beating Nabiki into a pulp was more difficult than Akane could have imagined. Through clenched teeth, she said,"I'll pay you if you help me find him."  
  
"Ah, now we're talking business." Nabiki had been waiting for an opportunity like this to arise for several days. If she couldn't convince Akane that she hand no powers, maybe Ranma could. Now all she had to do was find Ranma, a task easier said than done, especially since she knew that he was spending most oh his time nowadays on the other side of the world. "Of course, you'll have to handle all my expenses, and there will be a slight hourly fee of three thousand yen."  
  
Akane shrugged. That wasn't so bad. How long could it take her to track the boy down, an hour or two? And expenses, a free dinner and maybe a taxi? Now Akane was the one with the smirk. It was a small price to pay for her magic.  
  
****  
  
"Why are we here?" Akane asked angrilly. Akane did most things angrilly nowadays. 'Here' was the Kuno estate, and Nabiki had all intentions of charging Akane hazard pay for causing her to enter the heavily booby trapped area with only a flash light to guide them through the darkened grounds.  
  
"Ranma has disappeared," Nabiki told her. Pretending to be a secretary from the school, Nabiki had talked to Ranma's mother and discovered that she didn't know where he dishonorable son was. She'd seen Ranma hanging out with Kuno on several occassions, maybe he was staying here? It would have been easier ot having to drag Akane along, Nabiki knew, but she also knew that she would be absolutely defenseless against Kodachi and her pet alligator, where Akane may stand a chance, or at least provide a distraction for her to escape. "My sources tell me that he may be staying here."  
  
"Well what are we waiting for?" Akane demanded, making as if to rise from the bush she was crouched behind.  
  
Nabiki jerked her sister back into a sitting position and whispered,"Don't be stupid, Akane. This place is dangerous, more so than the people who live here. If Ranma is here, don't you think it would be better if we don't announce our prescence to him? You wouldn't want to scare him away and delay his punishment, would you?" Introducing thoughts of harming Ranma into her sister's simple psyche served to adequately distarct the girl from making a nuisance of herself.  
  
****  
  
Ranma had never met Kuno's sister, and he was thankful for that small boon. He'd wondered into her playrooms while Kuno gathered a few possessions he wished to carry with him when they stepped through the doorway. One room reminded Ranma of Sara and her attic bedroom, all dark and scary, generously hung with chains and implements of torture. Another had looked like a meth lab on steroids, and the last he'd had the courage to enter had had several glass chambers that housed creatures strangely resembling Teletubbies. Kuno had an excuse, with his inadequate grasp of saidin. Kodachi didn't. Actually, she might have been in the same situation as Kuno, only with saidar instead of saidin.  
  
He found Kuno waiting by his door, a bundle slung over one arm and a duffel bag resting at his feet. Ranma hadn't initially planned on letting the Shakespeare spouting freak accompany him and his grandfather. That had been before he'd become a mostly normal guy, sword obsession and slightly archaic speech aside. "That it?"  
  
Kuno nodded and spoke,"I care little for worldly possessions."  
  
Ranma shrugged and followed his student out of the empty mansion, making sure that he stepped in the exact same places as Kuno. He'd been told of the numerous traps laid by Kodachi and didn't wish to experience any of them first hand. The servants and other occupants were at a gymnastic performance, so there would be little chance that anyone would see them depart.  
  
They were going straight from the Kuno estate to the jungle site where the primed doorway awaited final activation. Ranma had left a note on the doorstep of his parents' home saying that they'd likely never see him again and that he'd probably end up marrying someone they'd hate. The whole bed episode had just killed any remaining affection he had for them. Kuno hadn't even bothered with a note.  
  
****  
  
"There they are," Akane whispered, somehow managing to hold herself back. She respected Kuno less than she did a mud puddle, but he had some skill with a blade and he could easily strike her down while she was distracted with reclaiming her powers from Ranma. No, she'd follow them until they became separated, then Ranma would be at her mercy.  
  
Nabiki nodded in the darkness and quietly responded,"Come on, let's follow them. And don't make a sound!" Together to two sisters carefully picked their way through a small copse of trees, a faux desert, and a large briar patch. They caught up with the two boys just in time to see a doorway of light open before them, through which could be seen a mound of rubble and a thick wall of trees.  
  
For Akane, the sight tempered her resolve and confirmed her already steady suspiscions. He had either taken her magic for himself or used his own to hide her's away! As soon as they stepped through the portal, Akane leapt to her feet and ran for it, dragging Nabiki behind her without the least bit of strain.  
  
****  
  
Arin forced himself to smile at Ranma and his friend. They both appeared so eager that he couldn't bring himself to tell them that they couldn't accompany him back to his own time. It was too dangerous for them. He regretted decieving the boys, he truly did. The Dark One couldn't be allowed to remain free, even if his freedom was in the distant future.  
  
"Remember, this is a one way trip," he told them. "Once you go through, there is no coming back." He would go first, then, before they could follow, deactivate the doorway with a specially prepared ter'angreal. The doorway itself was connected to the Portal stone by a series of web-like glass tubes, each glowing a subtle golden color as they focused dimensional energies into temporal instabilities. This setup was much more efficient than the one he'd originally used som many years earlier, and hopefully wouldn't destroy the Portal stone. For all he knew, this particular stone could be what ended up bringing about the reemergence of channeling in this area, destroying it could have disasterous consequences.  
  
Ranma, his arm no longer in cast or sling, nodded. He threw his backpack over his shoulders and picked up his own duffel bag. He said,"Seeya on the other side, gramps." In fact, he would not see his grandfather on the other side. He'd never see the man again.  
  
Making a big deal of farewells would have been suspiscious, so Arin simply nodded at his grandson then stepped through the empty doorway and disappeared into history.  
  
****  
  
As soon as Arin stepped out of the doorway he depressed the small button that triggered the ter'angreal he'd intended to deactivate the time travel device and strand his grandson in the past. The doorway disappeared as he'd expected, and would have faded from existance, its power gone, if not for a massive upheaval in the very fabric of reality.   
  
Far into the future, in a reality that existed in another dimension from the one created by Arin's arrival, the doorway reappeared, re-energize and ready to accept travellers for several more seconds.  
  
Arin would go on to prevent Meirin from creating the Bore and freeing the Dark One, though he would die in the process. His actions, instead of causing the paradox he had feared, created a splinter universe, one where the Age of Legends never ended, where the Breaking never occured, and the Dark One remained in his prison for ten thousand years before being freed by a power hungry channeller.  
  
****  
  
"Oh no you don't!" a girl shouted from behind Ranma and Kuno. They both whirled around, stunned to be confronted by a charging Akane. The girl was dragging her sister Nabiki behind her like a rag doll and glowing for all she was worth.  
  
"How in hell?" Ranma asked, instantly realizing that they must have followed them through the portal from Kuno's place. It wasn't his fault. The doorway would only continue to function for a few moments longer. If he stayed to return them to their own country, he risked losing his opportunity to join his grandfather in the future. Hastily, he slammed a wall of Air in Akane's path and turned to Kuno. "Hurry, we don't have much time."  
  
Kuno nodded and spoke,"Yes, but..." he looked longingly at Akane.  
  
"No buts," Ranma growled. "We've got to go now!" With that, Ranma focussed on the doorway. With a final, deep breath, he leapt through. Kuno followed close behind.  
  
****  
  
Ranma failed to realize that ceasing to exist within a certain period of time ended all channelling efforts, so as he stepped through the doorway, his barrier also ceased to exist. Like an enraged bull, Akane didn't think, she lunged for the magical doorway that had carried her enemy away. Nabiki, still held tightly in her sister's iron grasp, screamed as she was pulled along.  
  
A fraction of a second after her dangling feet passed into the future, the doorway trully lost all power, crumbling into white ash in less than a minute.  
  
****  
  
Author's Notes - Ugh, I hate this chapter. It wasn't any fun at all to write and I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking poorly of it. I've been eager to get Ranma to Randland, and decided now was the time to do it, before I grew bored with the story and inadvertently dropped it. Arin's little summary thing was too abrupt, for sure, and Akane a little too OOC, but I needed to get him out of the story and Ranma needs and enemy besides the Tower and the DO. Hmmm, maybe Ranma will end up bonding Kuno, though I would much prefer him getting a maiden of the spear. Kuno may not be the best fighter from Ranma's time, but in Randland, he'd be worth about ten warders. Against my earlier decisions, I've decided to make Akane a channeller. I just couldn't resist writing her in the White Tower, seeing how her attitude gets her treated by the Aes Sedai. Any suggestions for Nabiki would be appreciated. 


	8. 7

Through The Ages - Chapter 7  
  
The moment Ranma stepped through the doorway, he knew that many things had gone horribly wrong. There was no sign of his grandfather, not even a residue of Travelling gateway. The man couldn't hide, either, for the landscape was nothing more than blasted rubble for miles in all directions, where stone cliffs eventually rose thousands of feet. If he didn't know any better, and he didn't, Ranma could have assumed that a meteor had recently impacted.  
  
Kuno stumbled out, catching his foot on a larger than average piece of rock. He caught himself with his bokken, almost steady on his feet when another figure streaked out of the doorway. Akane, her sister Nabiki clutched tightly in her grasp, barrelled into Kuno at full speed. He went down in a tangle of limbs with a groan escaping his throat as Akane kneed him in the groin.  
  
Ranma stood gaping at the site for a few moments before he even managed to squeeze a thought out. Nabiki was on top of the dog pile, but finally free from her sister's hold, she climbed to her feet, rubbing her sore wrist soothingly. Something had gone wrong. The thought repeated itself in Ranma's mind. They should have been standing under an enormous floating orb, some kind of high energy test facility that his grandfather had told him about on several occassions. There should not be a crater large enough to fit most of Tokyo in.  
  
Still more or less stunned, Ranma didn't immediately feel the itching tingle that radiated across his skin. He finally noticed as Akane was attempting to extracate herself from Kuno's joyous embrace. Saidin hummed in the air, a tangible throbbing that didn't even require effort to sense. Experimentally, he sunk into the Oneness, feeling his anxiety and worry slipping away. The light of saidin was an ocean of power around him. Ranma wove a tiny flow of Fire, gritting his teeth unconsiously as the weave swelled past his expectations into a dangerous strand of energy. He dissipated the Power through the ground and turned his attention back to Akane and Kuno.  
  
She'd freed herself from the boy, who looked more than a little upset. Akane, however, looked absolutely murderous. Before blows could be exchanged, Ranma grasped saidin again. He didn't attempt to simply channel it as he normally would, instead drawing through the sa'angreal he wore on his right arm. The devices buffer acted as an adequate valve for the excess energy and he was able to restrain Akane in a caccoon of Air.  
  
"Kuno, use your angreal if you need to use the Power. There is something wrong with the Source here. The last thing we need is to burn ourselves out." Less than a minute had passed since their arrival, but it felt like an Age had gone by.   
  
Before he could say anything to the furious Akane, Nabiki yelped, reminding Ranma that she, too, was a part of their little group. Ranma saw what had caused the yelp and himself shouted in dismay. The doorway was slowly crumbling into white ash. Already half of the frame was gone. If he hadn't been in the void of the Oneness, Ranma would have sunk to his knees in despair. Even in the Oneness, the urge was powerful.  
  
This particular doorway was a one way trip. That was why he hadn't piled Kuno and the others through it immediately after realizing that they weren't where they were supposed to be. He hadn't been overly worried, though. His grandfather would be somewhere around, and he would know how to reverse the thing. The man had always said that time was a tricky thing to play with, perhaps he had simply arrived a few days earlier. Now, though, they were trapped. If this turned out to be the future they'd intended to travel to, there would be no problem, but Ranma wasn't convinced that he was that lucky.  
  
"Sensei, what is happening?" Kuno asked dumbly, probably to awestruck by feeling Akane's breasts to think at even his less than amazing standards.  
  
Ranma didn't answer. He faced Akane, unbinding a few coils of Air and allowing her to speak. She'd been trying to do so for the past minute or so, and when the opportuniyt presented itself, took full advantage of it. "Damn you! Let me go, you bastard! And give me back my magic!!!" With a sigh, Ranma replaced the gag. There wasn't much hope of getting any answers from her for a while.  
  
"Nabiki, when you two came through, did you or your sister break any of the connections to the doorway?" Ranma had no idea if that would matter or not, but he knew that they were all specifically tuned to time variances, as Arin had said more than once, and somehow losing the power from one of those could have effected their arrival. Maybe this was just a few weeks after his grandfather's arrival and the floating laboratory had been destroyed.  
  
Nabiki shook herself and shrugged. "I didn't see much." Now she glared at Akane in a very unsisterly fashion. "She pulled me through that damned door when my eyes were closed." She spitefully kicked the last remaining inches of the doorway.  
  
****  
  
"Shouldn't you let her down?" Nabiki asked Ranma a few hours later, pointing to where Akane stood, glowing like a then thousand watt neon blue lamp. He hadn't released the bonds that held her, nor the gag that quieted her, and if Kuno knew what was good for him, he wouldn't either. He shook his head and Nabiki asked,"What about Kuno?"  
  
"Let him talk to her. She can't exactly deny him the privelage and he's totally infatuated with her. This way we don't have to listen to her and he is out of our hair for the time being." Ranma and Nabiki had made themselves as comfortable as they could manage with the few possessions they'd brought along from the past. That mostly meant a bit of clothing to lay on so that the sharp gravel wasn't too biting and a wadded up bundle for a pillow. At least the chilled night air was no problem. Ranma had tied in several weak flows of Fire that warmed the ground beneath them and created a small, fuelless blaze to warm their surroundings.  
  
Nabiki looked troubled for a moment, but the expression passed quickly, suppressed expertly. "You seem intelligent enough not to abuse your power beyond certain bounds," Nabiki said carefully,"but what about Kuno? You don't know him like I do. He believes the world exists for his comfort and that he can do no wrong." When she'd learned of Kuno's channelling ability, Nabiki had had a hard time keeping herself from panicking.  
  
"Oh, he's still an idiot and arrogant, for sure. The delusions, though, were caused by his first uses of the Power. Once I'd gotten him suppressing those properly, he mellowed out significantly. Besides, he isn't anywhere near my strength with the Power." Despite his general dislike for the boyl, Ranma trusted Kuno a great deal more than he did most people. Kuno showed him a certain amount of respect and deference that he thought other didn't deserve. That he feared Ranma also secured his loyalties for a while.  
  
"I'll have to take your word on it, for now at least." Perhaps half an hour passed. The only sounds that disturbed the silence of the unnatural crater came as low breathing and the distant murmurs of Kuno professing his love to Akane. Nabiki once again broke the silence, asking what no one so far had voiced. "What are we going to do?"  
  
Ranma shrugged. "Tomorrow, we're leaving this big hole. I haven't really planned anything past that. I'm guessing, hoping anyway, that the old man arrived a few weeks ago and that we were just a little late. That would explain the crater and the weird saidin. He taught me the language, so if we need to, I can ask around until we find someone to take us to him."  
  
"I figured something like that," Nabiki snapped. "I meant what are we going to do about going home? Your stupid magic door is a pile of dust now."  
  
"Oh, that. Well, to tell you the truth, I really doubt you're ever going to be able to go home. Grandfather once told me about the creation of the doorways. The one we used was only the fourth ever made. You know that big ring of asteroids out past Mars? The stuff the doorways are made from comes from there. It took about three hundred years to find enough of the stuff to make the doorway we used. Then there are the countless hours of compression and shaping that only powerful channellers can accommplish, and the keying procedure, not to mention charging them..." Ranma trailed off, his impression made.  
  
"You're saying that we're just not worth the effort of building another one?" Nabiki asked levelly.  
  
"No, not really. The doorway we used exists here as a nearly finished, unkeyed, and as yet inactive ter'angreal. The people in charge could go through the trouble of finishing it and sending you and Nabiki back home. Of course they would lose the doorway in the process, and probably the Portal stone it would be connected to. It's more like they can't waste it on something as insignificant as two peoples desire to go home. The other two doorways are very useful. One connects to a dimension inhabited by beings who will answer any three questions you ask, including those about the future. The other leads to a dimension where you can get any three wishes granted. Imagine where the last one will be able to go when it's finished as it was meant to be."  
  
Nabiki mulled the words over. She couldn't blame Ranma for her predicament, that was Akane's doing, nor could she fault him for choosing to live here, in a time when his gifts were accepted and understood. "Am I going to be some kind of second class citizen?" she asked, wondering how many people here couldn't do magic, or channel as Ranma called it.  
  
"You mean because you can't channel?" Nabiki nodded. "Nah. There aren't really 'that' many of us, even now. Maybe something like one in every ten thousand or so people are channellers, and among those most aren't really that powerful. Aes Sedai, what channellers here call themselves, means Servants of All. From stories Grandfather has told me, before the Dark One was released from his prison, everyone got along pretty well. No wars or crime to speak of, so no channellers ever got a chance to really exploit their power. Instead, we just do things to make the world work better."  
  
"Still, you're the only one of us who even speak the language. Integrating isn't going to be particularly easy," she finished with a mirthless chuckle. "All I need to do is learn the language, re-educate myself, fit into a new culture, somehow support Akane and myself...ah, damnit, this really isn't like me, complaining about things that can't be helped."  
  
Feeling strangely sympathetic, Ranma said,"I'm a powerful channeller. If my grandfather is to be believed, as strong as any who's ever lived. I'm going to have plenty of cash once I get settled in and begin taking contracts. I'm not talking charity or anything, more like a loan."  
  
Nabiki could have turned the offer down, in fact she was tempted to, but she didn't. Ranma was being gracious, not something he had demonstrated himself capable of before. Instead of refusing, she began debating interest rates with him.  
  
Ranma hadn't intended to charge interest, or even really try to collect on whatever Nabiki ended up owing him. The simple act of haggling seemed to lighten the girl's mood greatly, though, and he kept up the exchange until they were both yawning, their eyelids drooping with weariness.  
  
****  
  
The next day, Ranma awoke to the feeling of a thousand knives pricking into his back. Somehow, the rocks felt sharper than they had the night before. He lapsed into the Oneness to separate himself from the sensation as well as to probe saidin more closely. Yesterday, even with the aid of his sa'angreal, Ranma had been reluctant to create a gateway. Today, the fluctuations were merely slight ripples and surges where before they had been great heaving waves of Power. He felt confident that any gateway he created would stay stable and safe.  
  
Shortly, the others roused themselves from sleep. Nabiki looked like he had felt when he'd first risen. There was no escaping into the void for her, though. Kuno didn't look uncomfortable in the slightest. He'd slept leaning against the statue-like Akane and Ranma didn't imagine that the boy could be any happier, not judging from the expression on his face. Murderous, homicidal fury played across Akane's face when she woke up, and Ranma didn't really blame her. He wouldn't have been very happy either if he'd had to sleep standing up like she had.  
  
Sooner or later she would have to be freed, the sooner the better, lest she act on the obvious desire to rip his heart out.  
  
"I first learned to ride a bycicle when I was-" Kuno was saying to Akane as Ranma approached. He stopped speaking when he saw Ranma and nodded to him gravely.  
  
"Hey, Kuno, why don't you go do some of your sword exercises or something? I need to talk to Akane for a few moments," Ranma suggested.  
  
"Very wise, sensei," Kuno said, not sounding happy to be separated from Akane now that he had her so close. He drew his bokken from within the volumous robes he wore and stalked off, slashing through the air and creating deep ruts in the rocky ground with air pressure alone.  
  
If it were possible, Ranma believed Akane's eyes would have burned him into a cinder at first glance. He could understand her anger with him, but not the blind hate she was displaying. "I'm gonna ungag you, then I'm gonna let you loose," he began. "If you scream at me the gag go back for a whole day. If you attack me, you get to be a statue for a week. Blink if you agree."  
  
A long minute passed before Akane blinked, and only then reluctantly. Ranma nodded and untied the flows that encircled her. With the restraining pressure gone, Akane sagged for a moment, almost falling to her knees. Then she caught herself and stood, stretching aching limbs until her joints popped as they moved. After cracking her neck and shuddering, Akane asked,"What have you done to my magic?" Her voice was quiet and low, the tone held chained violence.  
  
Ranma had to fight hard not to laugh himself silly. He hadn't intended to so thoroughly fool the girl when he'd first started the morning joke and he hadn't really believed Nabiki when she told him that Akane still believed herself gifted with magic, despite what her sister had told her of Ranma's actions and the evidence at hand. "Sorry to tell you, but there is no such thing as magic. Their is the True Source, the One Power that drives the universe, saidar and saidin, if you will. That is not magic. I am a male channeller, which means I can manipulate saidin. A female channeller manipulates saidar. You may possibly be a channeller, though the odds are astronomically against it. If you are, it will take you quite some time to learn to use the Power. Everything you've done that you thought was magic was just me playing a cruel joke."  
  
"Don't lie to me, you bastard!" Akane hissed. Her arm looked posied, as if ready to raise and swing.  
  
Before the girl could get herself in trouble, Ranma continued,"I'm not lying, ask Kuno if you don't believe me. Better yet, wait a few hours and we should have found someone that can take us to my grandfather. If you don't believe him, he'll know someone who can prove it. There are women channellers in this time. They'll be able to tell if you can use the Source as soon as they get within a couple feet of you."  
  
Stiffly, looking as if it were the hardest thing she'd ever attempted, Akane turned away from Ranma and marched over to where Nabiki was attempting to stretch some of the cramps their less than pleasant night had gifted them with.  
  
****  
  
Cadsuanne fought the urge to snatch the looking glass away from the tall, blocky warder. Not only would it be immature and beneath her dignity, she would also lower herself in the eyes of her fellow Aes Sedai. Besides, she wasn't altogether sure she could snatch anything from Lan Mandargoran's grasp. "Well, what do you see, man?" she demanded, wincing at her own impatience. She was eager to be gone from this place. Compromise had been reached the night before when they had determined it to be safer to wait for the Source to calm down after the massive upstirring perpetrated by the boy the day before. Now, though, there was no reason to delay, no reason except for some strange lights seen the night before.  
  
Without speaking, Lan passed her the looking glass and waved her towards the far distant point he had been observing the last several minutes. It took Cadsuanne a few moments to locate exactly what she'd been searching for. There were four of them, all young and with the exception of one of the boys, dressed most strangely, the two girls most strangely of all. They seemed to be arguing with one another, but the distance was too great and the looking glass too inprecise to allow her to read their lips. How had they arrived in the blasted remains of Shadar Logoth? There were no signs of horses, or even those flying creatures favored by the Seanchan, may the light burn their souls to ash.  
  
Damer Flinn, once he had awoken, insisted that saidin had been used by someone within the crater, and Jahar Narishma had backed him up. Cadsuanne, to her distinct displeasure, found herself wishing the boy would awake. Despite his hubris, the cold arrogance that he almost seemed to radiate from every pore of his body, Rand al'Thor was an experienced channeller of the male half of the source, and considerably more reliable than the two Asha'man she had with her. For all she knew, the two men had simply felt the remaining dregs of the enormous amount of saidin used the day before. Still, their claims would explain why the four youths were currently arguing within open grave of Aridhol.  
  
Then, clearing all doubt from her mind, a Travelling gateway opened before the small group, and it wasn't a product of saidar, of that she was certain.  
  
****  
  
Author's Notes - Got this one out more quickly than I expected. Welll they're finally in Randland, and the little group will soon be meeting important people and splitting up to do various things. Mainly, I'm just going to dump Akane with the Wise Ones, or perhaps the Kin. I really only used her to get Nabiki through the doorway, but now that she's here, I might as well have some fun with her, you know? 


	9. 8

Through The Ages - Chapter 8  
  
****  
  
"It'd help if I actually knew the geography of the world nowadays," Ranma commented grumpily as he wove a gateway.  
  
"Why should the geography be any different now than it was in the past?" Nabiki asked, half worried, half curious. If Ranma didn't know what he was doing with these portals of his, they could end up appearing in front of a bus or something.  
  
Ranma tried to grin at the girl, but it looked more than a little forced. "A whole hell of a lot. Grandfather drew me a crude map once and explained how how meteorite had struck the planet and caused the techtonic plates to shift and sink. Even he didn't know how long it'd been since that happened, but it was a while. Now, there should be two large continents, a medium sized on with an enormous bay in its center, and a bunch of islands that used to be mountains. Trouble is, I don't know where we are in relation to anything on the whole planet, so I'm gonna have to search for civiliation. Shouldn't be too hard."   
  
He didn't say how time consuming it could be. Even back in his time, which Arin had said was more heavily populated and settled than the present, there was more empty space than anything. He didn't know how many times he'd have to shift the gateway to find someone who could get him in touch with his grandfather. The portal, unlike others of its kind, did not show its destination. Instead, its surface remained a dull, iron gray that became blue in small patches before reverting to gray.  
  
"Okay, everyone, stand back. We're probably below sea level and I'm going to have to compensate so that I don't let half an ocean in here with us. If something goes wrong, there's no sense in all of us getting splattered." Before Ranma could begin the process, Kuno interrupted. Irritated, Ranma snapped,"What?"  
  
"Forgive me, sensei, but what task do you plan to undertake?" Kuno had drawn the quasi-ter'angreal bokken that allowed him to channel around his block, just in case he was needed to aid his instructor. He glanced longingly at Akane who stood a dozen or so feet away from the rest of the group, still upset over the argument she'd had with her Nabiki only minutes earlier.  
  
"Just a little trick I learned. I'm going to cycle the gateway's destination from place to place really fast, instead of creating a new one for each attempt. No big deal, one of my Talents, I guess." Without further interruptions, Ranma braced himself befor the portal and reached out, grasping more saidin in an iron fist of sheer will. The Power surged through his veins, burning through him like the heartfires of a star, washing away the mere warmth he'd felt at the earlier, miniscule weaving of the gateway.  
  
With an effort, Ranma bent the Power to his bidding, weaving Fire to enforce the gateway and Spirit to spread his enhanced senses beyond the hole in space. The dull gray disappeared from the gateway, replaced by an aerial view of snow-capped mountains, their sides blanketed by hardy evergreens. Then a desert, unlike any desert the four teenagers had ever seen. There was sand, as was to be expected, lots of sand, but the rocky spires and jagged outcroppings seemed alien in their very harshness, otherworldly even. Clear blue ocean. Glaciers as far as the eye could see.  
  
Twenty minutes passed before Ranma found any sign of human existance. He'd been harboring disturbing thoughts of being trapped in the distant past, before even dinosaurs roamed the Earth. It was a strange site. A large area of cleared land in an otherwise heavily forested area, surrounded by an impressive wall, housed hundreds of small structures, most of them too far away to be readily identified. Some kind of wilderness getaway for those tired of the hustle and bustle of city life? Ranma couldn't tell for sure, the distance between his gateway and the town was too great.  
  
****  
  
"It's too hard to say for sure," Flinn commented as he wiped his shiny pate with a dusty hankerchief. "The boy's as full of the Power as anyone I've ever seen, not including yesterday, of course." The grizzled old veteran turned to the fresh faced, Jahar, a boy who looked much to young to shave, let alone channel.  
  
The Dedicated shrugged self consciously. "If we were closer, maybe I could get a better feel for what he's doing. All I can say for sure is that he's doing something with that gateway that makes my skin crawl." He looked to Merise for approval, getting an encouraging smile from the Green who had bonded him as her warder.  
  
Cadsuanne considered her options. Rand and Nynaeve were still unconscious, leaving Alivia as their strongest channeller. Even with Nynaeve's powerful angreal to draw from, she doubted the Seanchan woman would be able to reach the distant channeller. Then, attacking the boy and his companions without proof of their intentions was almost criminally negligent. Of course, they could be disguised Forsaken, or the newest crop of Dreadlords on some mission from the Dark One, but they could just as easily be refuges from Sharra or travellers from some distant land even farther removed than that inhabited by the Seanchan.  
  
There was always Callandoor to consider. There wouldn't be any worries of mixing if it were used. Saidar still felt sligthly jumbled and distorted to her senses. No matter what the Asha'man said, some of that must linger in saidin also, even if they couldn't tell because of the caotic nature of the male half of the Source. Using the second most power sa'angreal, one never actually completed, in less than perfect conditions could end with the entire party, strangers and allies alike getting destroyed.   
  
Indecision cost Cadsuanne the opportunity. The moment she looked back through the looking glass, the saw the tall, robed boy step through a gateway and out of her reach. Not altogether displeased with the whole business, there had been no fight, afterall, Cadsuanne snapped the device closed and passed it to Lan. "Our guests have seen fit to leave and so shall we. Flinn, if you will?"  
  
The old man nodded. A moment later a gateway opened into the room the boy had had set aside for incoming Travellers in the palace of Caemlyn. Cadsuanne nodded to herself, admiring him for his resourcefullness, if not his manners. One of the gaidin ran ahead and unbarred the door to the small, closet-like room. Leading a small herd of horses through the palace wasn't exactly the most polite thing to do, neither was cutting someone in half because you opened a gateway in the middle of the street somewhere.  
  
****  
  
"Uh, Ranma, I thought you said there was supposed to be technology around here, something we could use to get in touch with your grandfather," Nabiki commented as they all walked down the small, cobbled lane. She wore a pair of Ranma's pants for warmth, though they were rather large on her smaller frame. To either side of the road, small, thatch-roofed, wooden houses sat nestled within short fences and the occassional vegetable garden.  
  
Ranma had at first believed this place to be some sort of retreat when he'd first viewed it from the air. Now he had a very different idea. From all directions, the boy could feel saidin being used. Nothing made sense here. Why would there be such low quality glass in the homes when it was a simple exercise in channelling to create perfect, crystal clear sheets of the stuff?  
  
Channellers went to large university type schools, not only to learn to harness their abilites, but also to recieve proper education. This place couldn't be an institution of learning. Well, it could be, it just wasn't very likely.  
  
"Ranma? Ranma?! Are you even listening to me?" Nabiki snapped, her already worn patience pushed beyond its breaking point.  
  
"Huh? Oh yeah, technology," he replied, not exactly mumbling. He tried not to stare as another woman walked by, dressed like one of those colonial reenactors from America. The woman glanced at them, paying particular care to Akane's school uniform, before sniffing indignantly and walking off with her nose in the air. Ranma thought he heard a muttered,"Indecent," come from the woman, in Japanese. He didn't even stop to think about her command of a language he had earlier assumed no longer existed.  
  
Something was so very wrong that Ranma couldn't even bring himself imagine what it might be. "Just stick close to Kuno and me," he cautioned, not wanting to further alarm anyone with his doubts. Though he felt saidin being used from all sides, there was a very definite concentration of the Power. He was bound to find someone there who could answer his questions, most notably the one about what in hell was going on.  
  
****  
  
"Today is a great day!" the tall, almost Japanese appearing man boomed, his voice enchanced by saidin so that it reached everyone in the large building.  
  
Ranma had left Kuno with the girls, hoping they would get themselves in trouble, while he pushed and shoved his way through the crowd of men and women to get a better vantage. That nearly every one of the men was a channeller excited Ranma as much as it made him nervous.  
  
"How many of you have dreaded the madness, feared that you, too, would eventually go insane, like every male channeller for the past three thousand years? I know I have. Well, my Asha'man, now we are free of the Taint which has corrupted saidin, and with it, free of persecution. The light accursed Aes Sedai will no longer hunt us down like animals, no longer cut us from the Source." This proclamation met with vigorous cheering from the men and almost as much enthusiasm from most of the women.  
  
Ranma didn't hear anything else the man said for a while. He had to reach out and take hold of a support post so that his knees wouldn't buckle beneath him. So much was wrong, dreadfully wrong! The taint on saidin? Obviously the contamination that had forced Arin to flee his own time after the Dark One's imprisonment. Three thousand years?! Now his knees did buckle.  
  
"Easy there, fellow. I'm a bit weak in the knees myself, but you won't catch me sitting on my ass in this mob. Liable to get trampled if you do," shouted the man who caught Ranma beneath the arm before he could fall. The short, gray-haired man had blunt, weathered features and a kind smile. He spoke oddly accented Japanese, not the common tongue he'd been taught by Arin.  
  
Ranma nodded once he felt more steady on his feet. "Thanks," he said with a grim smile. It took a couple minutes for him to pick his was through the roaring crowd of men and women. He finally passed through the exit into the fresh, cool air. He took a few deep breaths and allowed himself to sink to the stone steps. By all that was holy, what had happened to the world?! The Aes Sedai hunted men who could channel, which meant they were made up solely of women. What had happened to Servants of All? Asha'man? Guardians?   
  
"Sensei?" came Kuno's voice, just as Ranma felt that the world was spinning within his head. "Are you well? You seem overly pale."  
  
Ranma mutely shook his head, not bothering to even look up to see where the others were. Finally, after more than a minute of silence, with the occassional cheer from those gathered in the auditorium, Ranma stood, if somewhat shakilly. "Well, they speak Japanese, at least," he said morosely.  
  
"What's your problem?" Akane asked, her voice still tinged with bitterness.  
  
"Well, my problem is that we're stuck on this god forsaken shit ball of a world three thousand years after some sort of apocalypse or something, that's what." Ranma couldn't imagine the destruction a few million insane male channellers could wreak on the world. Fire and Earth, by far the most destructive forces of the Power, could move mountains and shift continents if abused. Apparently, they had arrived very soon after the contamination or Taint as they called it, had finally been removed. That would explain the fluctuations and surges in saidin from the day before. At least there was a bit of luck to be had out of this whole mess.  
  
"What?!?!" Nabiki and Akane shouted in perfect unison. Akane looked to be working up a battle aura and Nabiki had something of a maniacal gleam in her eyes.  
  
"Yep." Ranma wished he was more physically oriented, because now would be a really good time to just lash out and beat on a tree with his fists, or maybe kick a rock for a while. Doing it with the Power wouldn't help and would be too easy, besides.  
  
"You bastard!" Akane shrieked. "You brought us here and you'd better be able to get us back!" As expected, the battle aura flickered into being, a deep, angry red that pulsed like a beating heart.  
  
Before Ranma could do anymore than gag the girl, Nabiki rounded on her sister and slapped her so hard that she fell to the ground. Nabiki actually kicked her sister in the ass once she was down. Ranma glanced at Kuno to see that the boy was watching in as much open-mouthed shock as he himself. Nabiki bent low to the ground and leaned in Akane's face, heedless of the danger. She was no martial artist. Akane could break her like a twig. Still, she ground out between clenched teeth,"You little bitch. If you weren't my sister I believe I would kill you now. You drag me here against my will, then you blame Ranma when things go wrong? Get a clue, sister." Nabiki all but stomped off, coming to a halt near an ancient stone well. She leaned against the wall encircling the well and glared at her sister for all she was worth.  
  
"Wow," Ranma breathed, his own depression momentarily forgotten, driven from his mind by Nabiki's extreme display. Even more startling was Akane. The girl's aura disappeared in a blink and she didn't even bother to get up off the muddy, ice cold ground as she weeped. She had refused to wear anything of Ranma's or Kuno's to keep warm in the winter weather, and now she would definitely be feeling it.  
  
Kuno snapped out of his daze and rushed over to Akane. He pulled her to her feet and wrapped his long coat around her shoulders. Distraught, Akane wrapped her arms around Kuno's waist, causing an expression of sheer bliss to cloud the older boy's features. Ranma was really getting tired of the rapid shocks to his system.   
  
A sharp click of boots on stone drew Ranma's attention back towards the building he'd exited only minutes earlier. A channeller, most likely, if the black uniform was only worn by those men who had access to the Power. A silver sword was pinned to one side of the man's collar and a red dragon to the other. Now was as good a time as any to talk to someone in charge. If this guy wasn't, he could take him to someone who was.  
  
Unsure of exactly what he should say, Ranma waved the man over and asked,"Can I get some help here?"  
  
Tall, with long black hair that curled down to his shoulders, the man was handsome, even Ranma could admit it. He had a strong presence about him, something like that exuded by his grandfather, but more charismatic where his Arin's had been more of wisdom beyond his two hundred odd years. "Yes?" he replied in the strangely accented Japanese. "Have you come to learn to channel the One Power? If you have, I can test you for the ability. Please follow me."  
  
Ranma wondered what it must be like to know that one would eventually go insane. He couldn't really picture it, and was glad that he wouldn't have to. This man didn't seem like he'd let the inevitable weigh him down very much. "No no, I already know how to channel. I just need to speak to someone in charge. Me and my friends are lost, well really lost, and could use some help finding out where we are."  
  
If Ranma hadn't been so addled by the events of the day, he would never have let his himself be shielded. The channeller was quick, Ranma gave him that, but he knew that he could have been a good deal quicker if he'd only been paying attention. This was not a good way to make a first impression, as he'd learned on more than one occassion, but he wouldn't allow himself to be cut off from the source and possibly severed. With a sigh, he glared at the man who was regarding him coldly, and drew deeply from the well in his sa'angreal.  
  
****  
  
Author's Notes - I don't know when I'm going to have Ranma and the gang actually meet up with Rand and his cadre, but it won't be for at least another couple chapters. Anyone think Nabiki's reaction was too extreme and OOC? I do, a little, but she is only human, not totally emotionless like she's portrayed so often, and Akane really need a good bitch slapping, IMO. It just seems so fitting for her to eventually hook up with Kuno, not that I'm saying that will happen. It'd just be worth a laugh or ten if it did. 


	10. 8 Part 2

Through The Ages - Chapter 8, part 2  
  
He could have worked through the shield, and if he'd really felt like it, probably severed the man where he stood. Instead, Ranma chose to tear his shield down and see what the man's problem was. Spirit woven as a thousand tiny spikes blasted from Ranma's body, intangible to anyone but the man who had him shielded. He ignored the scream of agony that the technique tore from his victom's throat, focussing on removing the perforated shield. It tore apart like an old cacoon. He released his hold on the saidin within the well of his sa'angreal and drew on the Source as almost as heavily as he could without resorting to the device he wore on his right arm.  
  
The pain had ceased the moment Ranma removed his shield and now his assaillant leaned against the wall of the building, his forehead beaded with sweat and his eyes wide in shock. Before the situation could detereorate to the point where the men in the auditorium could be alerted, Ranma forced himself to release the Power, feeling a longing ache in his bones as it fled his control.   
  
Ranma regretted using the burst of Spirit, it was painful beyond imagining, but the only other way he knew to break a shield could have severed tha taller man and that would have been infinitely worse than inflicting a bit of pain on him. "I think we've had a misunderstanding here," Ranma said as he walked up to the man and extended his hand. His guard was raised now. He would be the first to reach saidin if it came down to it, and if the man reached for the Source again, he would die.  
  
Warily, the man extended his hand. Ranma grasped it and tried not to grimace as it squeezed his hand in a vice-like grip. At his full height, he towered over Ranma a full head and shoulders. "Ranma Saotome," Ranma said as he pulled back his throbbing hand.  
  
"Logain Ablar." Logain wiped his forehead with the back of his coat sleeve. "Nice trick with shield, kid Did the Dragon Reborn teach you that one?"  
  
"The who?" Now Ranma knew what Nabiki had complained about earlier. He could have gotten by in his grandfather's time with ease, so much had the man told him since he was a child. This time, era, Age, whatever it was, was as alien to him as anything he could imagine. He counted his lucky stars that these people at least spoke Japanese. "Nevermind. I don't suppose you could tell me when the Dark One was released from his prison, can you?"  
  
Logain looked down at him like he was daft, but did answer,"I don't know what game you're playing at boy, but I'll tell you. Before the Breaking," Ranma didn't miss the capital sound of the 'b' in Breaking,"three millenia ago give or take a century."   
  
Despite his doubts and certainty, Ranma had held a small sliver of hope. He felt that sliver slip away from him, and he had no desire to go after it. He really was trapped here in the mixed up world. "Damnit, sometimes I hate being right."  
  
The wary look Logain had not lost increased in instensity. "Boy, how long did ou say you've been channelling?"  
  
Ranma didn't think as he answered. "Since I was nine. Oh you're worried about the madness that other guy was talking about, eh? There wasn't any Taint where I lived, so don't worry about that."  
  
There was the look again. He seemed to think Ranma had been sniffing paint fumes or doing crack. "Now's as good a time as any with Taim and most of the others occupied," he muttered to himself, so quietly that Ranma barely heard him. "Follow me. We might as well get out of this blasted cold if we're going to continue this game."  
  
Ranma wasn't all that cold himself. Arin had taught him the trick of ignoring temperature as a birthday gift when he'd turned ten. He agreed with Logain, though, and motioned to the other, who were looking at him and Logain quizzically. Akane wasn't actually paying much attention to him, buried as she was in Kuno's arms, though Ranma didn't care one way or another what she did. "We might as well go with him. He can explain what we've missed."  
  
****  
  
Logain's home resembled all the others they'd seen so far. It was small and cozy, with cloudy glass windows and a thatched roof. The furniture inside appeared well made, if a little battered. Logain preceded them into the home, calling,"Gabrelle," loudly as he did.  
  
By the time everyone entered the front room, an attractive woman with dark brown hair and odd green eyes stood in a doorway leading farther into the house. "Yes?"  
  
"Fix some tea for my guests and have Toveine bring it out." The woman nodded curtly and hurried out of sight.  
  
Logain and the other seated themselves on an assortment of armchairs and a small sofa. Ranma chose to stand, taking the opportunity to pace from one end of the room to the other. He didn't know where to begin. The bound woman had thrown him off a little, too. He couldn't stop thinking about what she must have done to be required to use a binder. That meant she was most likely a channeller. It would be an ironic kind of justice if a woman who hunted male channellers was herself bound to serve one.  
  
"Damnit, Ranma, I'm not in the mood to sit here all day." Nabiki still hadn't calmed down since her attack on Akane.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I'm not exactly happy myself, you know?" Ranma snapped. Still pacing, he began,"This is all so screwed up, Logain. The world, I mean. How could the doorway have been so far off? What happened to my grandfather?" This was another time that he felt like hitting something.  
  
"Slow down, Ranma," Logain said. He didn't know what was going on with these people, but Ranma had shown himself to be a very powerful channeller and it would not hurt to gain such an ally if he could manage it. "Start at the beginning."  
  
"When the Dark One was sealed up at Shayol Ghul, my grandfather detected the contamination of saidin and used an altered doorway ter'angreal and a Portal stone to travel back in time. He was never sure just how far he went, but it had to be several Ages, at least. Eventually I came along and ended up having severely early Power Aquisition Syndrome. He trained me to use the Power and I helped him recharge the doorway so he could come back and prevent Lanfear from releasing the Dark One in the first place. We used it yesterday. When I came through there was no sign of my grandfather. The doorway is nothing dust now and we have no way of going back." Ranma took a deep breath and continued,"I heard some of what that other guy was saying about the Taint and stuff. If you could fill in the gaps, I'd appreciate it."  
  
Logain didn't make his opinion known on whether he believed Ranma or not and his face was unreadable. "The Taint drove the men of the Age of Legends insane. They destroyed most of the civilized world. We never have recovered even a fraction of what was lost. Ever since then the Aes Sedai have controlled most of the governing bodies, either by manipulation or open command. The Red Ajah make a point of hunting down men like us and cutting us off from the Source. I myself was stilled by the Reds over a year ago, but Mistress al'Meara repaired the damage. Can't really blame them. If they hadn't done it the Breaking may never have ended." He stopped and raised a questioning eyebrow. Ranma was staring at him in complete disbelief.  
  
"You were severed?" Ranma whispered. Logain nodded. "How could you possibly channel?"  
  
Logain shrugged. "I know little of Healing. There are a few others here who could explain it in detail if you wish to learn more. Now, as I was saying. The Forsaken have been freed from their prison at Shayol Ghul and the Dark One will soon roam the Earth once again, if the prophecies are to be believed. The Dragon has been reborn to lead us against the Dark One and his forces at the Last Battle. And as of yesterday, there is no longer a Taint on saidon. That's a very abridged history lesson, boy."  
  
Abridged indeed. Three thousand years squeezed into a double handful of sentences.   
  
"A likely tale," a woman's voice commented. Ranma looked up to see another bound woman standing in the room, a tea service held before her. She, too, had the overly smooth features of a person who had been bound for a good number of years. Who was this Logain to have two captured Aes Sedai servants while his home was so plain and simple? Then, Ranma told himself he could be jumping to conclusions. They could have bound the women with a chair, or they could be channellers who weren't affiliated with the all women Aes Sedai.  
  
"Toveine, how nice of you to join us," Logain said, no hint of reproach in his voice. "If you would serve the tea, please?" She went about passing tea cups around and filling them with steaming tea. Ranma declined the offered cup. Still not making his opinion known, Logain asked Toveine,"Perhaps you could poke some holes in the lad's story?"  
  
"Of course I can not prove him false, Logain, for there is no evidence. I fear I overestimated your intelligence, though, if you allow yourself to be taken in by these children. Time travel, not even the Aes Sedai from the Age of Legends could manage such a feat. No one has ever heard of a channeller experiencing aquisiton syndrome before they were twelve, and that is in females. Male channellers aquire their power even later."   
  
Ranma felt inclined to interrupt. "Time travel hadn't been attempted until my grandfather did it, and since he left no record, there is no proof, except for them and myself," Ranma pointed to Kuno, Nabiki, and Akane, all of whom hadn't uttered so much as a peep since Nabiki's one impatient comment. "I experienced the sickness early and almost died from it. My grandfather said that even in his time where channellers were common that a case like mine was rare. There are certain weaves that can force an individual to tell the truth for short periods of time. Do you know of it?"  
  
"There is no such thing," the woman replied waspishly. She looked at Akane strangely for a split second and Ranma had a bad feeling that the girl was going to get her wish, as unlikely as that seemed.  
  
"I should have thought of it sooner," Ranma said to Logain. "I can teach you the weave and you can use it on one of the girls. I don't trust you enough to let you use it on me, sorry, but you never can be too careful."  
  
Logain waved his hand dismissively. "Teach me the weave later. I believe you. You can go now, Toveine. You can come in, Gabrelle," he finished, and the women from earlier stepped into the room, an almost sheepish expression on her face. Logain chuckled and said,"Tell no one what you learn of Ranma or his companions." He nodded and they both left for parts unknown.  
  
Ranma introduced the others, barely mentioning Akane, who seemed zoned out, and paying particular attention to Kuno. "It's a block of some sort. My grandfather couldn't figure out how to remove it and I don't have a clue myself. The thing is harder than any metal I've ever come across, though, and he can use it pretty damned well, too, so it isn't much of a hinderance."  
  
"How good are you with that stick, Kuno?" Logain asked, referring to the boy by his last name like Ranma and almost everyone else who had ever spoken to him.  
  
Modestly, Kuno replied,"I have never met my equal, sir."  
  
"Good, I can get you a place helping old Haslin with the arms training. You'll be accepted more readily if you have something to offer besides just channelling." He turned back to Ranma and said,"You'll have to simply be a new trainee until I can get word to the Dragon Reborn. How do you feel about being married?"  
  
"What are you talking about?" Ranma asked before any of the others could beat him to the punch.  
  
"Enemies in the camp, enemies 'running' the camp. Ranma, you can't imagine how lucky you are that you ran into me and not Tain, the M'hael to you from now on, or one of his lackeys."  
  
"The leader?" Ranma asked, translating the phrase into the common tongue of his grandfather's Age.  
  
"He's either a Dark Friend or working against the Dragon Reborn, either of which makes him the enemy," Logain answered.   
  
He'd trusted Ranma, so now Ranma was going to trust him. That kind of thing worked both ways. "That makes sense, but what about the marriage question?"  
  
"Married couples get there own homes," Logain said, looking meaningfully at them. "You don't have to take advantage of the situation, of course, but I assume you would prefer greater privacy than that offered by the barracks."  
  
"Ah, hehehe, was worried for a second there. We'll have to talk about that one amongst ourselves."  
  
****  
  
Author's Notes - I took a WoT personality test once and it said I was most like Logain. I can see it. He's probably my favorite character, too, since Rand is an arrogant asshole now and slightly bonkers to boot. So, no getting upset that Ranma didn't kill him or do something really bad. It would have been stupid and Ranma can act rashly on occassion, but he's not that dumb. What's up with Akane? She's not really in shock or anything. Kuno's just got a weave of Spirit over her to keep her docile, or at least that's what I'm planning to use for the excuse next chapter of why she was so calm and unconfrontational. 


	11. 9

Through The Ages - Chapter 9  
  
****  
  
Impatience and frustration didn't even begin to describe what Ranma was feeling as he sat through another Asha'man training exercise. Not only would he have to touch the Source slowly, so as not to seem too experienced, he also had to refrain from drawing a significant quantity of the Power. Finally, the older man next to him grunted with effort, weaving Fire and Earth to detonate a small boulder fifty or so paces away, belatedly raising a shield of Air to block any fragments of the exploding stone.  
  
Taking hold of saidin and beating it into submission would have been Ranma's normal course of action. Today, he squinted and appeared to strain mightily, only touching the source after entire seconds of exertion. The weaves he used were so clumsy that he would have been ashamed of them as a nine year old child. The Asha'man set over his group of trainess seemed pleased, though. With an unhappy grunt that others probably took for a sign of weariness, Ranma sank back to his place on the bench.  
  
Now that he had to go through with this charade, Ranma was beginning to understand how difficult it was for channellers to actually learn how to use the Power. He'd still been a kid when he'd first touched the Source, and he'd nearly died from it, but he'd learned so quickly, soaked up so many weaves, that he thought everyone else could do it just as easily if a simple child could manage. Even the Asha'man themselves, not the lower level Soldiers and Dedicated, were for the most part bumbling, graceless oafs.   
  
This Dragon Reborn needed channellers to fight for him, and he definitely had them. They weren't good at much more than fighting, but from what Logain had told him, that's all they were intended for. Logain, on the other hand, was quite a talented channeller. Powerful, he learned the weaves Ranma taught him with relative ease and didn't waste his energy with large, bulky webs and clumped up weaves when a simple strand or two of the Power, properly twisted, would suffice.  
  
Mazrim Taim, the M'Hael, also appeared among the gifted. Ranma hadn't met him yet, but he'd been close enough to him on several occassions in the past few days to watch him channel. That alone was enough to make Ranma distrustful of him. He had an entirely different style of weaving than anyone else at the Black Tower. If he didn't know any better, Ranma'd have said Taim had been trained by proper Aes Sedai, back in his grandfather's time. Actually, it was possible. Inverted weaves and some Air could provide an almost full proof disguise.  
  
"All right, you light blinded whoresons," the Asha'man called out to the group,"time for some more sword drills. Get on over to Haslin's place and try not to let that hotshot brat with a stick make fools of you again." Ranma reminded himself that skinning the teacher wasn't exactly a good thing to do, and followed along with the other nine trainees.   
  
****  
  
To Ranma's suprise, he turned out to be pretty damned good with a sword. His arm still tired easily from the recently healed break, and it throbbed for hours after drills, but he got along much better than the others. Henre Haslin, an old man with a limp, who had trained a nearby Queen's guards for more years than Ranma had been alive was still a good swordsman, among the best from what he was told. Ranma could defeat him five times out of six.  
  
Kuno, inhuman juggernaut that he was, was an entirely different matter. Ranma's fellow recruits were terrified of him, and rightly so. Judging by everyone's reaction, Haslin's included, Kuno was the best thing since sliced bread. That Ranma could go whole minutes without getting hit more than a dozen times had earned him more respect in the eyes of his peers than if he'd been able to channel his name across the moon... now there was an idea to give some serious thought.  
  
Ranma, though, knew that Kuno was holding back most of his skill and power. What would everyone say if the boy began cutting through trees and the like with his bokken, without using the Power? Hell, they'd probably take him for Shadowspawn. There'd been talk of warders, which had led Ranma to ask Logain a few questions. What kind of man would allow himself to be linked to a woman who had complete and utter control over his every action if she so wished? There were some small benefits, but they didn't outweight the costs. Going insane with grief if the Aes Sedai dies isn't a good thing.  
  
That's how Ranma had learned of Gabrelle and Toveine. They'd been Aes Sedai sent to capture what they'd thought were a few men trying to channel. The women had been captured with laughable ease and bonded to various Asha'man. Ranma didn't blame them. When someone attacked him, he took no chances, removing them as a threat. If someone had tried to sever him, Ranma couldn't imagine what he'd do to that person. No, these Aes Sedai wre lucky indeed.  
  
And 'that' had led to why the Aes Sedai were bound by a criminal binder. Gabrelle had been required to answer that one, since Logain only knew the basics of the Oaths the women swore.  
  
She'd said,"The Three Oaths are one of the finals rights an Accepted goes through before becoming Aes Sedai. To speak no word that is not true. To make no weapon with which one man may kill another. Never use the One Power as a weapon except against Shadowspawn, in extreme defense of our lives, or the lives of our warder." She looked proud of herself, or proud of the Oaths anyway.  
  
Ranma thought they were nuttier than Kuno had been back before he'd started teaching him. "You do realize that a binder has side-effects, right?"  
  
Gabrelle nodded. "The feeling is quite awkward for the first several weeks, and the tightness takes a bit longer to completely fade from mind. The smooth featured faces, even when exceedingly old, also mark us for Aes Sedai to any who know what to look for."  
  
"You mean you don't know that the binder shortens a channellers lifespan by a little more than half?" Ranma had whispered in stunned, disbelief. For how many years had they been committing such a slow suicide? The entire three thousand? No, memories from the Age of Legends wouldn't have faded so fast as that, but still...  
  
Logain had at this point broken into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Ranma could see where it came from. He hated the Aes Sedai, and rightly so. They had severed him afterall, and that was about the worst thing Ranma could ever imagine happening to anyone. It was no wonder he treated Toveine like the lowest of the low; she was of the Red Ajah. "Oh, that's rich." More rumbling belly laughter. "And they don't even know!"  
  
Ranma couldn't find enough spite to get amused over the situation. There had to be some good women who had never even reached their prime because of the misused binder. He glanced over at Gabrelle. She didn't look like her normal, collected self. The woman had the look of someone about to burst into tears.  
  
****  
  
Back in the present, Ranma caught the wooden practice blade tossed to him by Haslin and swung it through a few experimental strikes, trying to loosen his arm up and get in the proper mindset for the upcoming exercise.  
  
****  
  
"Be glad he's letting her train you," Nabiki sighed, growing tired of Akane's whining. That had been happening a lot lately. Back home she could just lock herself in her room or threaten her sister with any number of forms of black mail. They shared the same room now, though, and there wasn't a camera in sight. Any other form of coersion would have been the type that could ruin Akane's reputation at the Black Tower. As much as she wanted to hate the girl, she was still her sister.  
  
"Bah, training. What kind of magic makes you surrender to it before you can even use it?" she shorted. Lessons with Gabrelle weren't going well for her little sister. Nabiki had talked to the Aes Sedai woman and discovered that while not all that impressive, her sister did have the ability to channel the Power Ranma had told her off. Gabrelle claimed that for women, channelling saidar was like redirecting a river. You couldn't go in and try to change its course, but you could open irrigation ditches or smaller streams. That was Akane's problem. Nabiki could never picture her surrendering to anything, man or magic.  
  
Akane went on,"Tatewaki says that when he uses saidin, he has to grab it and fight it so he can channel. That's what I can do, that's how saidar 'should' behave." The development between Kuno and her sister had very nearly stunned Nabiki into unconsciousness. He'd changed after Ranma's arrival, certainly, but he hadn't changed that much, for heaven's sake.  
  
Nabiki kept her voice level, willing the disapproval not to show through. "Not everything can be how you want it, Akane. Be glad that you have the ability at all. Don't complain because it isn't exactly what you wanted." She said no more, going back to the books she had taken to balancing as her way of making herself useful. She ignored Akane's angry exclamation and the subsequent slamming of the door as the girl stormed out of the room.   
  
The Dragon Reborn, Rand al'Thor, had amassed an absolute fortune in his conquests, a large portion of which went to supporting the Black Tower and its astoundingly rapid growth. Self sufficient in many ways, most of the funds went towards paying the Asha'man their stipends, obtaining foodstuffs that couldn't be grown locally, and hiring skilled laborers to assist in construction of the wall and other projects where channellers unaided weren't enough to get the job done properly.  
  
****  
  
Ranma dived to the muddy ground, soaking his trousers but avoiding Kuno's swing. He lunged for his opponent, practice sword raised as if to run the older boy through the stomach. As he'd expected, the attack was beaten aside almost contemptuosly. It unbalanced Kuno enough that Ranma could climb to his feet and put his guard up, as he'd intended. Wordlessly, Ranma and Kuno pressed forward, towards one another.  
  
Now that Kuno couldn't bring out his full abilities, Ranma was lasting a little bit longer during every session and had started to enjoy them more now that he could see a noticeable improvement in his skills. Practice blade met Power-altered bokken in a flurry of strokes and counterstrokes, filling the air with a steady echoing crack of wood on wood. Neither used the forms taught by Haslin, for they didn't know them and didn't need them.  
  
Finally, when Ranma was reaching the limits of his endurance and his hand and arm felt like molten fire flowed through them, his much abused weapon snapped. Kuno's bokken, as indestructible as Nodoka's Power-forged katana, cleaved through Ranma's mundane weapon and slammed into his shoulder. Much of the force of the blow had been cancelled by Ranma's attempt at defense, but enough had won through that Ranma felt his collar bone break, much like the wooden blade had a moment earlier. Pain flared down Ranma's entire left side. He cried out once before plunging into the Oneness, where sensations of the body were as numb as those of the mind.  
  
"This is getting to be a disturbing habit, Kuno," Ranma ground at while supporting his injured shoulder with his only recently healed arm.  
  
Kuno's whispered apology was drowned out by the thunderous applause from the other trainees. Ranma had forgotten about the men, so intent had he been on his fight with Kuno. Where before there had been two groups of trainees not totalling twenty, now there was a small gathering of at least fifty men. Despite Ranma's injury, most of them had smiles on their faces as if they had just witnessed a great show. Were they that much of a spectacle, Ranma wondered.  
  
"Break it up, break it up. I'm sure you layabouts have better things to do than stand around here all day," Haslin said fiercely. Once they showed signs of dispersing, Haslin turned to Ranma, who was picking his way towards him while trying to fend off Kuno's helping hand. "Mighty fine display of swordsmanship, boys, mighty fine indeed. Keep it up, Ranma, and you'll end up a Blademaster like Kuno. Just you see if you don't." He clapped Ranma heavily on his good shoulder and told Kuno,"Get to a Healer and call it a day, you've earned it."  
  
****  
  
Healing was a wonderful thing. Ranma rotated his newly Healed shoulder, feeling nothing out of place except for a lethragic weakness that a good meal and a few hours of sleep would take care of with ease.  
  
****  
  
Today they were moving into their new home. It wasn't fancy, not at all, but it was comfortable and more private that Logain's house. Ranma hadn't complained about having to share a home with the other 'newlywed' couple. He and Nabiki wouldn't mind at all. With the number of trainees and their families being brought in now that the Taint had been eradicated, space was at a premium. It had only been Ranma's extremely high potential and his and Kuno's sword skills that's gotten them a house so soon, even with Logain's sizable influence.  
  
To everyone but Logain and his two tamed Aes Sedai, Ranma and Nabiki had been happily married for over a year, just as soon as their village elders and parents had consented to the union. Kuno and Akane were a newer couple, freshly married and still getting used to living with one another. It was all a load of shit, funny, but still reeking of sewers. Ranma wouldn't have minded sharing a bed with Nabiki, but he had resigned himself to taking turns between the floor and the bed with Kuno.  
  
Nabiki disabused him of this notion when he mentioned it to her. "You are definitely out of the loop, Ranma," Nabiki said with a chuckle. Even here, as out of her element as anyone could manage and still be on the same planet, she still managed to keep abreast of everything that was happening. It was actually one of the things Ranma admired about her.  
  
"What are you going on about now, Nabiki?" he asked, going through the motions. He wouldn't pay her for the info, and she knew it, so she would have told him whether he wanted to know or not.  
  
"Only that Kuno and my little sister intend to share a room for real," she replied, deliberately casual.  
  
The tea, the very hot tea, that Ranma had been sipping, now decorated the front of his shirt, his lap, and most of his face. "What?!" he nearly screeched. He channelled the steaming liquid back into the cup, any desire for the drink squashed.  
  
Nabiki smirked evilly and said,"You heard me. Kuno and Akane are an item. Disturbing as it is, I think they deserve each other." She went about scribbling something in one of the ledgers she'd been working in for the past two weeks, not paying attention as her free hand automatically spooned her breakfast into her mouth. She probably didn't notice that she was chewing or swallowing, either, Ranma concluded.  
  
Ranma didn't ask her to clarify the news. She would expect payment for it with no compromises. He didn't have enough gold to be throwing it away when he could go to the source of the information if he needed to. He'd only seen Akane a handful of times over the weeks, to his continuing happiness. Ranma knew she was taking lessons from Gabrelle in channelling saidar and that she had so far been unable to so much as touch the Source. That was as far as his knowledge on her doings went. Kuno wasn't much better. He saw the boy each day during sword drills and in a lot of the channelling lessons, but they never talked beyond discussing the mediocre lessons and whatnot.  
  
Then Ranma realized something else. The home they'd been assigned had two bedrooms, that he'd known beforehand. With Akane and Kuno in one, that left him and Nabiki in the other. Well then, that wouldn't be so bad. Who knew, one thing could lead to another and...  
  
As if she could read his thoughts, Nabiki said,"Not a chance, Ranma. We'll take turns just like you and Kuno had planned from the beginning." She didn't even deign to look at him.  
  
"You have a dirty mind, Nabiki. I wasn't even thinking about that until you mentioned it. Now it'll be on my mind for hours." Big whopper of a lie, and Nabiki probably knew it. Ranma felt a little less stupid having said it, though, so it wasn't a totally wasted effort.  
  
****  
  
Author's Notes - Not all that long, but I did get it out pretty quickly, so there isn't much room to complain about that. Things are happening kind of fast, but I have to do that or the fic will get bogged down with a lot of explanations and never get to the good parts that I'm really looking forward to writing. I've changed the idea for Akane back and forth quite a bit. Originally she was going to be a moderately powerful channeller, then I changed that to really weak, then back to a decent showing. Now I've made up my mind. She will be about average among Aes Sedai once she learns how to do things, but there's the beauty of it. She's going to have a block. Akane will only be able to channel when she ISN'T angry, otherwise she won't be able to give herself to saidar to channel it, kinda like a reverse Nynaeve. 


	12. 10

Through The Ages - Chapter 10  
  
****  
  
"Finally!" Nabiki exclaimed as Ranma walked into the room. "I thought you'd never get here. Now hurry up and put those wards in place so I can get a few hours of sleep."  
  
Ranma couldn't blame the girl for being a bit peckish. The walls weren't exactly thick, afterall. Who knew that Akane was a screamer? Pushing those thoughts from his mind, Ranma took hold of saidin and wove a thin barrier or Air that would keep all sound from penetrating the room. "They can't keep going at it like this every night, you know," Ranma said with false certainty. "Everyone has to sleep eventually." Kuno had looked dead to the world the past few mornings, but he still went about his routine then got busy with Akane most of the night, every night.  
  
"Yeah, well until then, the wards will do just fine." It was Nabiki's turn on the bed, so Ranma pulled off his thick boots and stripped down to his boxers, then climbed into the thick pallet near the door.  
  
****  
  
"Today, Ranma, we meet the Dragon Reborn for the first time," Logain said to Ranma as he entered the man's small office.  
  
"You mean you haven't even met the guy?" Ranma knew that Logain was Rand al'Thor's biggest supporter within the Black Tower. If it hadn't been for him, Taim's power within the Tower would have been much more consolidated.   
  
Logain shrugged. "Saw him once, when they were parading me down the streets of Camaelyn in a cage. He wasn't the Dragon Reborn then, just a farm boy in the big city. The moment I saw him I knew he'd rock the world down to its very foundation."  
  
"Oh, okay then. So, where are we meeting him?" Ranma was eager to meet the man everyone said was Lews Telamon Therin reincarnated. He'd heard stories from his grandfather about the original and wanted to see how the new version compared to the old.  
  
"Outside the besieged city of Tar Valon. Things are coming to a head and from my correspondence with him, the Dragon Reborn intends to secure his position by bringing the rebel Aes Sedai into the fold." A slight look of concentration passed across Logain's face and a moment later Gabrelle, the pretty Brown stepped softly into the office.  
  
Ranma was almost certain that she and Logain were sleeping together, or else they had very unusual sleeping arrangements not unlike those he shared with Nabiki. And despite the fact that he had bonded the woman against her will, there did seem to be some affection shared between the two channelers. The woman raised a questioning eyebrow at her summons and said,"Did you call me or did I imagine that?"  
  
"I summoned you," Logain said more warmly than Ranma would have expected. "I was hoping to get your opinion on some matters of diplomacy."  
  
Without being bidden, Gabrelle seated herself. She said,"Although I have read extensively in the area, you would be better served to request the aid of a Blue or Gray sister. With no Blue's in the group, a Gray will have to suffice."  
  
Logain shook his head and said,"This has more to do with Aes Sedai relations than those between nations. It'd be helpful if I knew what to expect from your sister's when they learn that we have bonded the Aes Sedai sent to kill us."  
  
Gabrelle pursed her brow and replied,"There isn't a precedent for an Aes Sedai, or even an normal woman having been bonded at all, let alone against their will. Among the sisters, though, bonding a man against his will is looked down upon as rape. It would not be innaccurate to assume other sisters would regard my situation and that of the others here as an even worse atrocity."   
  
"Did you know that an Aes Sedai bonded the Dragon Reborn against his will some months ago?" Logain asked casually. "From information he has given me, there have also been plans and even an attempt by various Aes Sedai to bond his friends, one of them only a few days after he was married."  
  
Gabrelle looked rather poleaxed by this news. Ranma himself was suprised, outraged even. The nature of the bond allowed the initiate to be controlled completely. That meant..."The Aes Sedai who bonded him, can she Compel him?" Ranma asked quickly, as soon as the thought occured to him.  
  
A feral grin appeared on Logain's wide face, but was smothered an instant later. "Not in the least, he assures me." He chuckled, as if privvy to an inside joke. "No, Alanna Sedai bit off more than she could chew when she tied herself to that one."  
  
"Ah, a Green. I should have suspected," Gabrelle said knowingly. "The Greens may be good in a fight, but their preferred battle ground is a bed, if you know what I mean." Ranma wished he hadn't seen the sly little wink she shot at Logain and the sly grin he flashed in return. If they wanted to flirt, they could at least let him leave first.  
  
Ranma cleared his throat loudly and said,"Anyway, getting back to the busness at hand. Do you mean that the Aes Sedai don't know about Gabrelle and the others?" he asked.   
  
"As far as I know, the secret has been well kept. Even during the Daughter-Heir's occassional visits. Elaida, may the Light burn her soul to ash, likely assumes the sisters she sent to the Black Tower are captive or dead. Dead, most likely."  
  
"I begin to see the point. The Dragon Reborn intends to declare his allegiance to the rebel faction of sisters and wishes to know whether our captivity will effect his bid." Gabrelle sounded sure of herself, very Aes Sedai-like, from what Ranma had seen of the other bonded women at the Tower.  
  
Logain obviously had trouble not laughing in the woman's face. After a few moments of tense silence, he said,"Hardly. He intends to make it clear that any Aes Sedai who doesn't swear felaty and join his cause will be wiped from the face of the Earth. He has a device, a sa'angreal I believe he said, named the Choedan Kal. I understand that it is the most powerful of its kind ever." That was more than enough explanation as to how the Dragon Reborn intended to bully the Aes Sedai into submission.  
  
Ranma's gasp coincided with Gabrelle's, but they had totally different reasons for the display. Before Gabrelle could speak, Ranma said,"My grandfather told me of the Choedan Kal." Arin had told Ranma nearly everything he knew, in hopes of passing on his legacy after he was gone. "They were completed only a few weeks before Lews Therin and the Companions sealed the Bore. They're powerful enough to destroy the planet." With his sa'angreal, Ranma could have razed Japan and sunk it into the the ocean, he was sure, it was powerful, but the enormous sa'angreal Arin had told him of made his look like a children's toy.  
  
Quickly, before anyone else could speak, Gabrelle said,"This is madness! No Aes Sedai will swear allegiance. We don't do it for our own Amyrlin and we certainly won't do it for the Dragon Reborn." She was probably trying to forget what had been said about the mostrously powerful sa'angreal.  
  
Almost gently, Logain replied,"Some already have, my dear Gabrelle, as will you and all your sisters."   
  
To Ranma and Logain's complete astonishment, Gabrelle burst into tears and fled from the room sibbing.  
  
"I don't get it," Ranma said, to which only Logain could shrug, just as bewildered.  
  
****  
  
"Please be careful, Tatewaki," Akane pleaded, pressing herself against his body and attempting to mold herself to him.  
  
Behind her, Ranma was looking at Nabiki and mock vomitting. "Maybe she hit her head and forgot that she's an evil bitch who hates men?" he suggested in a whisper.  
  
"It's possible. It'd explain a few things, at least." Nabiki, if anything, looked more disgusted than Ranma. "She's still a bitch, though. Hey, you don't think Kuno did something to her mind with the Power, do you?" she asked suspisciously.  
  
"The head trauma theory is way more likely. Kuno has less aptitude for Compulsion than me, and I barely have any at all. Besides, I never taught him how and it seems to be a lost Talent nowadays." To himself, he said,"Still can't believe they had forgotten how to Travel. Pathetic." Focussing back on reality, Ranma shouted,"Damnit, you two, don't do that in public! Put your pants back on, Kuno." Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered about learning balefire one day.  
  
"Why is he going?" Nabiki asked, trying to take her mind from what she'd just seen her sister try to do in front of Logain's home. The girl's opinion of Kuno had never been high. Now he was dirt.  
  
"Intimidation factor. I'm pretty good with a sword, but he'll be giving all those warders we're bound to see the shakes, Logain tells me, and that'll be transmitted to their Aes Sedai through the bond. Anything to throw them off balance and aid the Dragon Reborn's own ta'veren abilities." If the Aes Sedai knew what the Choedan Kal was, they wouldn't need to be intimidated. They would need to be found, since everyone last one of them would probably try to find a hole to hide in.  
  
****  
  
"Just because you can't get any, Nabiki, doesn't mean you have to ruin my fun," Akane snapped as the two sisters walked back to their own home. Nabiki waved to a few of the women she had come to know winked at a young Asha'man every so often, laughing when they grew flustered.  
  
"There's nothing wrong with 'getting some'," Nabiki snarled back. "Doing it so loudly that Ranma has to use the Power to mute you two so we can sleep at night is even understandable, sorta. Doing the same damned thing, practically in the middle of the street is not!"  
  
"Whatever. I'm going to go beat up some of those boys trying to learn how to swing a sword properly." Akane broke away from her sister and headed towards the exercise field.  
  
When he got back, Nabiki was going to make Ranma check Akane out, just to make sure that Kuno hadn't done something to her brain. Right now, she would rather have had her man hating, super bitch sister around instead of the Kuno loving super bitch that she had become.  
  
****  
  
Moments before Logain made the gateway that would take them to their destination, Ranma grabbed hold of saidin. He ignored the torrent of Power that swept through him, using it to unravel the inverted weaves that concealed his sa'angreal. He knew that he could draw the Source through it without any difficulties when it was concealed, but he had no idea whether or not its secondary defense functions would work with the Illusion in place.  
  
"You got yours, Kuno?" Ranma had decided to act like nothing had happened between Kuno and Akane. It was the only way he could treat the older boy with any respect. There were plenty of girls who would probably have thrown themselves at Kuno, no matter how stupid he was, so why did he have to go after Akane? She just didn't have anything going for her.   
  
Kuno nodded and drew from within his black coat a small amulet. It was round and had an engraved smiley face on the front. It was also a moderately powerful angreal. With it, Kuno was more than a match for most channelers.  
  
"What are those?" Logain asked curiously. Before they could answer, Logain channeled a gateway into being. The other side of the portal held a snow covered expanse of hills, looking much like the Black Tower would have if there had been no buildings and no channelers to clear the area of snow.  
  
"Sa'angreal and angreal. Like the Dragon Reborn's Choedan Kal, but weaker, a lot weaker," Ranma answered.  
  
"I should probably get one of those," Logain said as he stepped through from his living room and into the blindingly white expanse of snow.  
  
Ranma and Kuno followed. The gateway closed behind them and they were left alone, three men in the middle of nowhere.  
  
"I think we're a little early," Ranma said, glancing down at his wrist watch.  
  
"This is where he is supposed to meet us, give or take a few hundred feet," Logain assured him.  
  
Fifteen minutes passed. The cold didn't bother any of them, but boredom did. Five minutes of standing around with nothing to do was as much as Ranma could take. He channeled a small area free of snow, removed the moisture from that patch of ground and formed it into a halfway comfortable chair. Then, trying to see how many flows he could handle at once, Ranma created a small army of miniature snowmen, each no higher than his knee. For nearly ten minutes dozens of the little creations did battle with one another, some throwing miniature fireballs at their enemies while others used swords of ice to rend their foes.  
  
The mock battle was still going on when another gateway opened in the middle of a particularly nasty fight between two small squads of snowmidgets. Ranma's unfortunate army was trampled into mush by the arrival of several dozen spear- and bow-wielding men and women. Ranma shrugged and climbed to his feet.  
  
"That'll be five Tar Valon marks you owe me," Logain said to Kuno.  
  
"I don't see how you came to that conclusion, my good man. Though my side was clearly losing the battle, the untimely arrival of our guests has thrown the eventual victor into contention," Kuno replied, sounding for all the world as if he'd been taking lessons from Nabiki.  
  
Ranma hadn't even realized that they'd been betting on his amusements. He could have made a killing if he had. He shrugged, turning his attention to the Aiel he'd heard more than a few tales of. What his grandfather had told him conflicted greatly with the Aiel of the present. A lot can change in three thousand years, he supposed.  
  
Once the Aiel contingent had poured through and secured the area, which included training several arrows on each of the three men who had arrived earlier, another man stepped through the gateway. He was flanked by a tall red-headed woman and a gray-haired matron who had the overly smooth features of someone who had used a binder, an Aes Sedai, no doubt. The Dragon Reborn was a tall man, taller even than Logain or Taim, which meant he was a hell of a lot taller than Ranma. He wore an embroidered red coat in the same style worn by the Asha'man, with a sword buckled at his left hip. In one hand was a short tassled sceptre that looked kinda stupid, in Ranma's opinion.  
  
The Aiel parted for him and the two women, as he made his way over to where they stood. "Greetings, your Lordship," Logain said, bowing low to the man. Kuno repeated the gesture. Ranma nodded to the taller man. He might have bowed to God, or the Creator, or whatever they called it in this time, but he would bow to no man.  
  
The Dragon Reborn grimaced and said in a deep voice,"Please, no formalities, call me Rand." Ranma's respect for him grew a bit after that comment.  
  
Ranma noticed the old woman studying him intently and returned the favor. She had aged well and must have been stunningly beautiful in her youth. Now, though, she was handsome, with an air of authority around her. She reminded Ranma of the shrivelled old troll from the Amazon village, only a lot less shrivelled.  
  
"You!" she suddenly exclaimed. Ranma's skin began to tingle, most incessantly that on the back of his arms.  
  
Ranma didn't know what she had against him, he had never seen her before in his life. To be safe, he drew on saidin, not only to show that he was not to be toyed with, but because he tended to act more wisely when in the Oneness. "Me?" Ranma asked flatly.  
  
Rand sighed and muttered,"I knew I should have told her before now." He placed a placating hand on the old woman's shoulder and said,"He can be trusted, Cadsuanne. I know who he is."  
  
Cadsuanne shrugged the hand away and began,"Boy, he is one of those we saw at Shadar Logoth while you were still unconscious from cleansing the Taint." She didn't glare at him or show any other signs of aggression or distaste. She just looked at him. He'd seen the same 'look' back in the Amazon village when the troll woman had used the chi attack that had pealed away his supposedly impenetrable shields and nearly killed him.  
  
Ranma put a few things together in his mind and came to the simplest conclusion. "Is that what that big hole in the ground was called?"  
  
"He's dangerous," Cadsuanne insisted.  
  
To Rand, Ranma said,"Don't you hate it when old people tell you what to do all the time? Or when they call you 'boy' or 'lad'?" Standing around in the snow all day wasn't going to get anything done besides leave a lot of people with frostbite.  
  
Rand looked like he had found a brother or long lost friend. He nodded with a smirk and said,"Truer words were never spoken." Cadsuanne's cheeks were a bit pink now, and Ranma doubted that had anything to do with the cold.  
  
"Rand al'Thor, speaking ill of Wise Ones incurs much ji," the very pretty redhead said angrilly. Her tone lost some of its bite when Ranma saw that the girl had to fight hard not to smile.  
  
"Yes, well, why don't we get a move on," Rand said, avoiding the issue.  
  
Ranma eyed Cadsuanne. Cadsuanne eyed Ranma. The Aiel eyed everyone. And Logain and Kuno went back to arguing over who's army of snowmen would have won.  
  
****  
  
As the group made its way through the encampment of the army surrounding the suprisingly large city of Tar Valon, Ranma and Rand talked. "My grandfather helped to create the male Choedan Kal, the keys for it anyway," Ranma said.  
  
"It's a shame that he didn't come through the doorway with you and your friends. He sounds like he may have been able to help repair the female key." Rand didn't fully trust the boy, not yet, but he didn't have any reasons not to. Ranma had taught Logain a weave capable of discerning truth from lies, which had been confirmed to work as claimed. The same weave had proven Ranma's story as accurate, amazingly hard to believe but accurate all the same.  
  
The army parted before them, more because of the Aiel than Rand's presence. No one but Rand's friend, Egwene, the leader of the rebel Aes Sedai, knew of their arrival before hand. Word would travel slowly in such a huge press of men and equipment. As Rand had explained, this was a much smaller entourage than normally accompanied him.  
  
"I doubt it. I never had the Talent for creation, but grandfather still told me a lot about the process. Most ter'angreal can be created by a man or a woman and used by a man or a woman. Angreal and sa'angreal must be created by whichever side of the Source it will magnify or there is some sort of buffer effect that can burn you out or do strange things to your mind." Ranma had never really thought about it before. Making things had never been his interest, but the situation Ranma found himself in now would have been so much simpler and more secure if he could have made a few simple angreal. With the Dark One once again likely to escape his prison anything would help. And the largely inept channelers of this Age needed all the help they could get.  
  
"You should talk to Elayne, my fiance. She's already made some simple ter'angreal. Any information you could give her may help immensely."  
  
Ranma glanced at Aviendha, the fierce rehead who strode by Rand's side. He would have sworn the two of them were as much of an item as Kuno and Akane. Aviendha noticed the stare and confused expression on Ranma's face.  
  
"My first-sister Elayne Trakand, as roof mistress of her palace will be Rand al'Thor's first wife. When I complete my apprenticeship with the Wise Ones, I will become Rand al'Thor's second wife and Elayne Trakand's sister-wife." She sounded perfectly happy with the arrangement. Back and to her left, Cadsuanne was scowling mightily at the pretty Aiel.  
  
Ranma took in the words, thought about them for about half a second, then clapped Rand on the back. "Congratulations, man! You're about the luckiest bastard I've ever met in my entire life!"  
  
Rand's face had gone nearly as red as his hair, and that was really saying something. "It's an Aiel custom," he muttered in his defense. Aviendha began to growl something and Rand quickly interjected,"But I really want to do that, really. I love them all, Aviendha, Elayne, and Min."  
  
"Men?" Ranma queried, disturbed.  
  
Rand shook his head vigorously. "No, no, Min, short for Elmindreda."  
  
"You are my hero," Ranma said with real feeling. Three women. It made Ranma's head hurt thinking of all the things they could do, the positions...and going down that line of thought would only frustrate him. Instead, Ranma asked,"Do you have any tips? I mean on how to do that for myself." Ranma had always considered himself a smooth operator, and had proved it on several occassions, but THREE!?!  
  
Ranma ignored Cadsuanne's not so quiet,"You are a foul-minded little boy."  
  
Rand, if anything, had gone even redder in the face. "I have a feeling that you and Mat will get along well."  
  
****  
  
Author's Notes - I know I originally said that Ranma and Rand wouldn't get along well, and I don't think they would have before Rand cleansed the Taint, but I'm working under the assumption that Rand really isn't psycho and that LTT was really in his head. No Taint and LTT isn't bothering him anymore. Add to that the relief from not having to worry about going mad before the last battle and Rand should be a lot like his old self. Akane and Kuno will be explained. 


End file.
